Transformer Sensors

Transformers are robotic beings, and thus tend to be assumed to have sensing capabilities beyond those of normal humans. We'd like to be flexible in what this sensor array encompasses, although anything particularly exotic or exacting has to be mentioned on your character profile page. What's more, sensor arrays should be viewed as a plot device, a means of moving a plot forward, but not of short-cutting through it. It should also be noted that in the canon sources, Transformers are shown frequently to be able to hide behind or around perfectly ordinary objects. Thus, you cannot automatically use special 'IFF transponders' or whatnot to instantly know the locations of all Transformers around you. Such behavior will be viewed dimly.

As a quick note, because it falls under one of the admin's field of expertise and seeing it abused annoys her, please understand the difference between an active sensor and a passive sensor. A passive sensor is a receive only device. Human eyes and ears are good example of passive sensors. Transformer vision, although it probably sees into different wavelengths, is also assumed primarily passive. Passive sensors can be very useful, but they tend to have upper limitations on exactness, and are vulnerable to things like cover and obstruction.

Active sensors are sensors that must send out a signal of some sort to work. The type of sonar that most people think of (the sort that makes 'ping' noises) and radar are both active sensors. Because of the definition of radar, there is no such thing as a passive radar. Active sensors can often provide more exact or more in-depth information than passive sensors, but they carry with them an inherent disadvantage: they can be detected by passive sensors designed to receive whatever signal they're sending out, be it noise, radio wave, infra-red light, or something else. There are ways to make the signal less obvious - disguise it as noise, perhaps - but because active sensors, by their definition, require sending out a signal, there is always the risk that someone has figured out a way to read it, and thus can use it to locate the sender.

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