Optronics
Electronics is the study and use of electrical devices that operate by controlling the flow of electrons or other electrically charged particles.
Optronics is the study and use of optical devices that operate by controlling the flow of light or other light emitting particles.
While originally a small subsection of electronics, optronic technology has blossomed into a mature and widespread field of both military and consumer level devices. Optronics can be found as the dominating technology in everything from lawn art to starships. They comprise not only some of the most impressive, but some of the most representative technologies for all corners of the cluster. In most cases, these devices are more optronic than not, with only a small fraction of the total device genuinely electronic.
The most obvious use for advanced optronics is the deceptively complicated art of holograms. Holograms dominate the consumer display market, providing both fully three dimensional and layered two dimensional projections on everything that could possibly need to display something.
"Holovision" is the common name term for Holographic Television. True to their name, holovisions usually project holograms wide across two dimensions and thin across the third. By providing a largely flat viewing surface, this helps to reduce the onset of 'HAVS', or "
Holographic Acute Visual Strain". As the name suggests, HAVS is attributed to prolonged viewing of holographic projections, due to the eye and brain constantly trying to redefine depth of the holographic object.
Holographic decorations are common across the cluster, and penetrate nearly every aspect of normal life. Entire buildings can be found covered as one giant holovision screen for a minuscule fraction of the cost it would be to do so electronically. Roads and highways are marked and regulated by smart holograms that adjust and adapt to the flow of traffic. Holograms can be found decorating the gardens and lawns of Federation residential communities, or the otherwise stark offices of the Caldari. Grand setups depicting holy scenes are often used within Amarr churches, and interactive holo-art has recently found groundbreaking popularity within Matari artist circles.
Yet optronics is not simply the technology of the grand and impressive hologram. Optronics are at the core of some of the most powerful computers in New Eden. Light travels much faster than electricity, and when power is no concern, optronic circuits can chew out some of the most calculation intensive workloads at a fraction of the time it takes an electronic circuit. Fiber optic cables are an ancient technology widely used for the physical transmission of information, such as within planetary or station environments. Fluid router technology is still prohibitively expensive and highly regulated, so fiber optics remains the most viable alternative for high capacity network infrastructure.
Biooptronics is a curious field of technology, with the dubious honor of being instrumental in the creation of Rogue Drones. The discovery of light sensitive and light emitting bacteria is not a new one, but with the maturity of genetic engineering came the ability to use these bacteria in any number of ways. Once the applications for these strains became a reality, the infuriatingly complex proper names of even the larger subgroups became too much of a hassle for public use. Marketing firms quickly and efficiently redubbed both groups under the less than appropriate term: "
Photobacteria".
Photobacteria were formerly commonly used as an essential link between biological tissue and optronic circuits. Used in high performance prostheses and cranial implants, the photobacteria are both immune resistant and ingeniously designed to avoid rejection by the host body. Their use in medical applications, however impressive, has dropped off significantly in the wake of improved nanotechnology.
Today, they can be found in many consumer level gimmicks and devices. Glowing beverages swimming with the little buddies are fun treats for party crowds. Eyewear and helmets use them as a less bulky alternative to holovisual displays. Even hazmat detection units use them to warn personnel of impending danger. Though by far, the most common use of all is in a replacement for paper.
Real paper is made with wood or other organic fibers. The plants and animals that grow these fibers are expensive and difficult to grow anywhere but on a planet... and transport costs quickly overwhelm any economic sensibility to using paper offworld. As a replacement, photobacteria came to the rescue. A thin layer of them sandwiched between two sheets of plastic provide a re-writable surface with the application of special 'pens'. These pens either activate or deactivate the phosphorescent bacteria within the sheets. The only downside is that for permanent recording, the bacteria must be flash frozen and killed, leaving an opaque mark behind more similar to pigment. Countless variations on bacteria color, plastic color, opacity, and durability exist. Cheaper versions are often single use, and must be 'flashed' soon after use to prevent corruption. More expensive options can be used countless times over several months before requiring a final flashing.
Starships are prodigious users of optronics. Lasers, cloaking devices, tractor beams, camera drones, reactor control units, and more all depend heavily on extremely advanced or industrial strength optronics. On top of that, almost all essential systems of a starship use optronics instead of electronics. The reasoning for this is fairly clear, as EM interference is notoriously common in space. Both from celestial and anthropogenic sources, electromagnetic interference could and would quickly cripple even military craft if they depended on electronics. Instead of choosing to add shielding to an already outdated form of technology, starship designers quickly switched over to this new field. Life support, power production and transmission, ship controls, and more all use the comparatively reliable optronic base technology.
Today, optronics are often overlooked as just a fact of life in New Eden. You wake up in the dark morning to a ceiling that lights itself. You check the news on a holovision, you add milk laced with harmless spoilage-detecting photobacteria to your coffee, and you drive to work where you'll work within the safely reliable fiber optic business network of your employer.
Billions of years ago, light helped give birth to our race. It shone down from the heavens and stirred the seeds of life, or if you're Amarr... was a gift from God.
Now, it is a cornerstone of our technology, an essential aspect of our society.
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