My head cannon was that the designers of the VISOR sent a “raw” signal to the brain and let the brain filter out what wasn’t needed rather than trying to synthesize a particular signal. Geordi says as much in “Heart of Glory.” We saw a jumble of mess but for him it could have been something akin to augmented reality, a more photographic scene with other signals layered on top. The brain is surprisingly good at adapting. We do it all the time with our ears where we can tune out the noise of a packed room and listen to an individual conversation. However if you listened to a recoding of it with no context it would sound meaningless. The brain can do similar things with the eyes, a person can wear goggles that invert their vision and eventually your brain will correct for it.
These were my thoughts as well. There might also be implanted chips in Geordi's head that help process the data. So the Enterprise got all the signals where Geordi's implants could separate the signals with a mear thought from him.
What always puzzled me was in the movie Generations how the Klingons were able to modify his visor enough to see perfectly... And we all know what happened next lol
I'm glad someone mentioned this. Strictly speaking, I don't think the Duras sisters modified the visor (which would have been obvious to Geordi) so much as made it send a feed (like in Heart Of Glory) and then used some serious Digital Signal Processing to get a true-color image. Either that or they were sending only a very small section of the full feed. Either way, it calls the events of Heart Of Glory into question.
I think it’s because when it interfaces with the nerves duplicating sight is very hard kind of like how cancer is cured but the common cold is still an issue. The Klingons just tapped the output the out put data not needing to be converted into the signal that a optical nerve can read it simply out puts video. If they had a spent a Couple of moments explaining how The Klingons tricked the enterprise computer into not sensing unauthorized out going communications
Not to mention the views of what Geordi saw via his visor in the episode The Mind's Eye, he he was captured by the Romulans, and subconsciously programmed to assassinate a Klingon governor.
I took it as the connection to the brain as the issue. Granted we know brain science has advanced to the point where they've all but eradicated headaches ("The Battle"), however that doesn't mean they've perfected the ability to replace our visual cortex (sorry off I'm inaccurate). We do know that the VISOR causes headaches (which, again, are canonically rare), so it's not the perfect solution for using hardware to replace biological parts. I imagine his later ocular implants utilize the parts of the eye the VISOR doesn't. The VISOR in effect does an end run around the eyes and directly connects to the brain. Maybe I'm way off base here, but it's the only thing that seemingly makes sense.
That was my take, too. It was a "good enough" solution that they couldn't get perfect because every brain is different, but it was better than nothing (and they were able to add a couple of extra colours to it because that wasn't the hard part). At the end of they day, he was able to adapt to it and find a way to interpret the data in a way that allowed him to function as a normal sighted person, and that was their goal.
Love the series so far, I like how you are questioning the logical thinking behind the original ideas without being detrimental to the source material, clever idea 💡
Thank you, Glad you enjoy it! And yes, this series is only to promote discussion, not really condemn the choices, or even necessarily be right about my own position! Sometimes it's even just a Devil's Advocate position entirely ;)
As I understood it, the cause of Geordi's blindness was specifically that his optic nerves just didn't work - as opposed to various other forms of blindness, it was caused by a lack of function in the nerves themselves. What this means is that, in order for Geordi to "see" the VISOR has to basically hack other parts of his brain to _synthesise_ "sight" using parts of his brain which aren't designed for that purpose. This was why there were interface jacks on his temples - they were wet-wired into his brain in order to allow stimulation of other nerve centres besides the ones which interpret visual stimulii. Essentially, the VISOR system causes controlled instances of synaesthesia in Geordi's brain - rather than processing visual information with his visual cortex, the wetware sparks off sensations in other areas which give him a similar effect to the green-and-purple spots you get in your eyes sometimes. Those spots aren't actually physically _there_ and nobody else can see them, they're just neurological feedback causing false positives in the brain's visual perception; _that's_ what Geordi "sees" when the VISOR buzzes certain nerve clusters in his brain. After some time getting used to it, the differing patterns and intensities would become something which could be interpreted by the brain and understood well enough to give the wearer some idea of what's going on - enough to avoid bumping into things, and possibly even discern the shape of objects and surfaces - but it would be far from seeing everything in glorious Technicolor. The VISOR isn't a miraculous cure from blindness, it's a cludged-together neuro-hack to give some vague semblance of actual vision while cutting the intended nerve centres out of the equation... it's a bodge-job workaround rather than an elegant solution, which is why Geordi would still want something better. He might be able to see wifi signals, but he couldn't read a comic book. Of course, that's not something which was necessarily explained to all the writers chosen to write Geordi's character, which is where we get the "I can see as well as anyone else" stuff in some episodes...
Oh yes! Thank you! I've been waiting for this! And as someone who has worn glasses all of his life, Geordi's VISOR is something I've thought about. Does Geordi's VISOR makes sense? Yes! Think about what we know about how the eyes work ..... and don't work. A picture comes through a flexible lens, get's flipped upside down, and run through an Iris that changes diameter according to how much light is needed. The picture is then slammed onto the back of the eyeball where rode and cones breaks the picture down, and shoved towards the optical nerve. Once it hits the optical part of the brain, the brain is then able to rebuild the picture into something we understand. The issue here comes down; in my opinion, to how rods and cones work ..... exactly. Exactly what signals are being sent? How are these signals being interpreted by the brain. The other thing about the VISOR is weight. From the look of it, the VISOR is made to be light weight so it rests upon the nose of the wearer; like a pair of glasses, and easily attaches to the two connector by the temples. When one wears glasses a lot, weight is very important. For your thought about attaching a "camera" to the VISOR, here a thought for you: the VISOR grants the wearer a 180 degree field of view. To grant the wearer that same ability, you would need something like the five-lenses night vision goggles that is used by special military forces. Even if you do consider the differences in technologies, that would probably make Geordi's "headaches" worst. If you really want camera's on Geordi's face, think Borg implants! There is one more thing to consider: the VISOR was a long term experiment Geordi was working with. I say this for one reason ...... Star Trek: First Contact. In the scene where Zefram Cochrane tries to run from Geordi, we were given a inside view of Geordi's new ocular implants where an arm with a magnifying lense dropped down, and clicked into place thereby magnifying Geordi's vision. These are just my thoughts. Destroy them at will!
It obviously should be able to provide a normal Camera picture as well. That does not contradict the possibility to show various sensor data as well. One could imagine several different modes that Geordie can switch between, maybe a bit like a normal photo with an overlay of additional data or some additional functionality like zooming in or x-ray-vision. That’s how I would imagine a visor. The depiction in Star Trek TNG was very irritating to me as well. I just put it aside thinking that this was mostly due to a lack of possibilities to visualize the true thing to a TV audience. Or that it meant that the data he gets is so much more than what is in a normal picture, that they decided to make all those false color overlays to visualize that his brain is making sense of all that and gets out even more details.
Unfortunately the canon of the entire piece is just ridiculously irritating, like you, I too thought he'd see as humans could and then better with different modes... Like a Tricorder attached to his brain!
I agree, when that episode premiered I thought "that sucks, 300 years in the future and no one could hook Geordi up with a camera?" I guess it would have gave him superman abilities if he had Predator-like super vision.
The best explanation is the sensor gives a complete EM Spectrum image from Radio to Gamma. The Visual light band is very narrow and would be lost in the influx of information. I imagine it is quite a chore to mentally isolate the various wavelengths without help from the image processor. Some people actually can see the fringes of the visual spectrum. People with light colored (Blue etc) eyes can see the redder part of the spectrum compared to those with darker colored eyes. Since the processor cannot determine what he would naturally see it gives it all to him, and lets the brain sort it out.
I like in the later TNG films after Generations that Geordi's visor was replaced with enhanced robotic eyes. I liked that instead of the clumsy visor. At least the new eyes won't give Laforge headaches the way his visor did on occasion.
In the episode with the counterfeit phaser rifle, Geordi is seen using the flip-up sight. We have no indication he has pinhole vision. (Also, he's testing a suspicious weapon _meters_ from a warp core, while Data stands _a foot away_ from the target. ;-)
I could argue the interference we see in the scene in Heart of Glory was due to the Visor was design for a human brain...and the ENT-D couldn't process the constant change in sensor Data very well...as LaForge puts it in the episode, "I select what I want and then disregard the rest." Also keep in mind that even at the start of TNG, Visors were considered to old tech...there is a scene with Pulaski trying to convince LaForge to get artificial eyes as the Visor was known to give headaches, but at the time LaForge wasn't impress by their specs...so it is possible there was technology that could replicate human vision more accurately, but LaForge wanted the extra sensor data
From what I understand from the episode "Heart of Glory" To an outside observers prospective such as the bridge crew, his vision was just an indistinguishable jumble of different frequencies and bandwidths. However, Geordi did explain that his sight behaves much like that of hearing and background noises. That is, you learn to select the ones that are the most applicable for your needs at the moment and disregard the ones that aren not. This could also explain away his many apparent discrepancies with his sight and how Soran and the Duras sisters where able to hack into it and calibrate it for their needs.
There is current trials, and has been for at least a decade, to use "sensor" data and write it to the human brain to allow a person to "see". I thought his Visor was akin to a video camera seeing the visible spectrum plus UV and IR and beyond. There would have to be a way to connect the Visor through its attachment points on his temples and into the vision part of the brain. Also a way to filter the mass input, to see color or IR or UV or radio waves or whatever in the EM Spectrum. Just like a tricorder from TOS in the '60s has been built and is used in industry, medicine and everyday use, Geordi's Visor may eventually become reality, just not as cheesy looking.
I agree with the explanation that the visor exists, but may not be completely perfected to the point where it helps a person who’s born blind see absolutely perfectly. It definitely helps Geordi and is better than him having nothing, but it could still be a technology that’s being improved upon (until we see his upgrade in First Contact and beyond).
One thing I’ve often wondered is how is he able to read with the VISOR with so much visual distortion? I would think they’d make it a lot easier for him to see sensor readouts, or even the basic controls of the LCARS interface
I had always assumed that Geordi's visor sent all the data it perceived through his temple implants to be deciphered and then input into his brain to be experienced as "sight". The "Heart of Glory" episode merely displayed all of the data to the viewscreen. It is up to Geordi's brain to interpret what he needs and then ignore the rest. Having said that, I also wondered how he saw the controls of the LCARS' panels. My only guess is that Geordi was able to tune into the EM spectrum the panels displayed. (Of course since 23rd century medicine has little blue pills that can regrow a new kidney, ST3 if I recall correctly; the one with the 🐳 🐳, they should have been able to (re)grow Geordi's eyes and optic nerves. Instead of relying on experimental hardware that didn't quite work as intended.)
Since it is a technological device it seems logical that it would show things that our organic eyes cannot so the visor does make sense in that it can let Geordi see what we cannot and he no doubt was trained in how to interpret what he was "seeing".
What's interesting is that both Geordi and his VISOR influenced the creation of an optical viewing device in the late 90s that was developed based on NASA technology that help the visually impaired see and read by using cameras and magnifying glass and was named JORDY (Joint Optical Reflective Display) after the character.
It was an interesting idea that they played with with his visor. Though like some of the other comments i have read it wasn't perfect, seeing they still were working on ways to adapt disabilities of the mind. Even though it didn't give him a clear picture, it was able to give him some insight to other things that a normal person would miss through normal visual observation. This is probably what gave Geordi such an advantage in engineering. Though I do think that they are far enough in the future to have the ability to have Geordi to see a clear picture. I am also on the line with what Qexilber said, that the visor should have enhanced his visions well beyond the normal human with a verity of enhanced visual settings. Still, the concept was one that they played with, and it gave some credit to the blind, indicating even in the future the human race still had genetic problems, but Starfleet and the Federation gave these people a chance to work a normal life.
I believe the idea was that the VISOR picks up the electromagnetic wavelengths from somewhere in the infra-red, to (probably) UV-B, then compresses them into the range from about 700 nm (deep red) to around 400 nm (violet), which is what most of us can see with our normal Mk. I eyeballs.
I thought at first, the visor was to help jordi see certain forms of radiation that the warp core emits and didnt know he was blind. I was expecting by the TNG era, cameras as big as an eyeball will be used to supplement (if one eye is blind) or give sight (for both eyes). Later it was used in the TNG films. It woud be even cooler if the eyes had a phaser built in so the person can use it depending in the situation... like a certain kryptonian.
Wow, I never even considered how Geordi percieved holograms... Maybe the computer altered the Holodeck emitters so that objects it created also displayed their image/shape with augmented EM specteum wavelengths so that he could "see" the holograms along with the other occupants.
This is a stretch but… Maybe the crazy visual imagery had to do with the fact that Geordi was born blind? Like the visor was picking up all sorts of light beyond the human visible light spectrum, and basically just shunted it all through his poorly formed/unformed optic nerves in an effort to get anything transmitted through his optic nerves to his brain? And I don’t remember this, but did they ever say that Geordi’s visor was a prototype or anything? If so, maybe that could explain (1) How bad his visual input looked in TNG, (2) How/Why you see some background characters in Lower Decks also sporting LaForge-style visors, and (3) How/Why Geordi’s replacement implants in First Contact were so much better (visible light only, he could “zoom ‘n’ enhance” like CSI, etc.). Great video, Triangulum! This is a fun series 😁
I'm pretty sure the show made several attempts to imply that sending perfectly accurate electrical signals to the brain that would result in perfect vision is still pretty difficult to do even for the 3360s. Now, after the 3360s? I think his sight did get better as advancements in sending the desired electrical signals to the brain with extreme precision became available, Because we also got to see what Geordi's sight looked like in First Contact when he and Riker were trying to find Cochrane in the woods.
I think (overthinking it) that the images displayed on the screen aren’t exactly how he ‘sees’. After all, it’s designed to speak to a brain, and be interpreted by said brain. So when it’s displayed on screen, it’s showing the ‘raw’ footage, not how he interprets it. I expect it’s a little bit like how a cochlea implant works. Its interpreted by the brain, but doesn’t sound like real sounds. But also I agree with your analysis whereby having his visor be just like a high definition camera removes the purpose of him being blind as a character trait. If that’s the case, it’s little more than face jewellery.
I think it boils down to the old adage, how do you describe color to a blind person. While it might have been possible to hook up a camera to Gordi's brain the visor was only half the tech involved here, the second was the implant itself that the visor connects to. Remember the reason why they couldn't just make him synthetic eyes was there was nothing to attach them to, the part of his brain that could receive those signals was not there. So the implant was meant to replace that missing piece, it caused him pain and discomfort but allowed his brain to understand the binary data and in that respect he had to learn what those impulses are just like we learn what colors are and how to identify them. For you or me it would make no sense because our brains already know what red, blue and green are. It does still seem like the tech is oddly...dated for TNG but until the borg Star fleet didn't seem to be too far along when it came to brain implants though they claimed they had it mapped and understood. That just how I understood it at least.
He finally got artificial eyes later on. I remember that scene in Star Trek: First Contact. And then in the next movie, his eyes became normal due to regeneration of cells
I always assumed an adult that goes blind would get a photo-realistic visor because that's what they grew up viewing. Since Geordi went blind at an early age he could learn to decipher the "more detailed" images of his visor. Seeing the color of a person's skin is nice, but seeing fluctuations in the temp, humidity, and conductivity of their skin is arguably more useful. Just like any prosthetic, I'm sure it's customized for each user. As an engineer he'd have more use for seeing variable fields, mechanical imperfections, and circuit paths than pretty colors so he probably chose the settings based on what he was comfortable with.
I feel like how I would explain what we see in the show is like translating 3d into 2d it 4d into either. You have to compromise the image to translate it to something our eyes can make sense of. Like I feel if Geordi had a choice in what he could see, he would have chosen the most advanced and capable one, and a blind individual with a visor who isn't an engineer might choose a regular RGB vision.
if memory serves me well , Geordi was born blind so he didn't have the optic nerves to began with, if he had been then the VISOR would have worked look a set of high-tech glasses for him, but it has to do is 'guess' at what things would look like to Geordi and place them it the correct order and shape. and being mostly based off a type of scanner he can't really see like a normal person does.
He was not just blind. He had a unique condition. The implication was this was the only option to have any sight, not the ideal. Cloned implants replace it in many alternate futures because the idea being a better method for him was found
Actually, in S2 Pulaski asks him why he doesnt have implants, and offers them to him... His reason is that they may not actually work and that if they didnt, there was no going back...
It should be able to as the visual light is part of the spectrum as inferred and ultraviolet light so it should be able to show some kind of conventional image.
I feel the VISOR's purpose was never really to give sight to the blind as a normal visual image would, but that it was an "enhancement" sort of that showed a lot more outside the visual spectrum which someone not used to seeing through the device couldn't really parse. That the VISOR was even meant to translate visible light into brain signals so someone could see just like normal sight feels to me like an assumption we make; that the tech should make it to where a blind person could see like we do, but just because human eyes evolved in this way doesn't mean that's the only way to "see". It's confusing and philosophical lol. That's at least how I always grasped it and made it work with canon. Geordi could see more and better than average person with sight but he still had a desire to see stuff from time to time like normal eyes would, same way Data was far advanced beyond human abilities but strived to be human. I saw it as two sides of the same theme in TNG and one reason they bonded so well.
I could think of only two reasons. One: Due to it not being limited to the visual spectrum, the entirety of the optical range is displayed (we all know that our visual range is but a small subsection of the whole range) and the viewscreen (which was designed to only ever show things in our humanoid spectrum) struggles to display the full range and thus screwed the view up totally. This explanation follows Data’s logic of the Visor being superior to normal eyes. Two: It is, as usual, the biological component that struggles to adapt to the technological aid, much like Neil Blumengarten wrote.
The reason that I really like this video is cause you go beyond explaining what the visor can’t do and explain why the logic of what it does “in universe” makes it impossible for the visor to not have at least the ability to see normally. I liked how U mentioned the reasoning adding side plots which is likely the reason but your in universe review of the tech is thorough and I can not find any holes in the logic.
I agree. When they showed what Geordi sees, it was silly he could see those wavelengths and not a normal image. I also thought that could be adjusted, but nope. They have that fancy holodeck and can't make a good visor?
i like to think that the tech is in fact around that would be able to allow Geordi to see normally, but the technology perhaps is bulky or provides a form of lag as it compresses the scanned data and re-constitutes it to something akin to normal human vision or more prone to damage. So rather than suffer the extra bulk or the delay in video (which for a starfleet officer is a bad thing, especially someone on the helm then engineering), Geordi made the conscious choice to forgo that aspect .
I suppose it's because the VISOR has a broader perception range than human eyes, and that translates into different outputs. Geordi has experience in interpreting this color soup and making sense of it that people seeing the same things can't. The greater question is, since that sensory overload gives him headaches, why not reduce it? I have two possible explanations: one is that te VISOR is based in non human technology (the Andorian/ Aenar, for example), and humans weren't that good at tinkering with it yet - in essence, Geordi's visor would be a 1st generation prototype. The other explanation is that Geordi finds the migraines an acceptable trade-off for better awareness of what's going around him.
As a legally blind person myself, since my012, I agree with the complaint that the VISOR can't show photorealistic pictures, but ST has always been about diversity. I always wonder what would happen if Geordie ran into a new race that had no concept of vision at all. Being blind is not an absolute, it's a wide spectrum. In my own case, 70% of my optic nerves are dead due to a brain condition called hydrocephalus: my vision is like looking at a very old color TV with heavy snow and some of the color washed out. Only 2% of blind people in the world are completely blind. I suppose what the producers wanted was a "tricorder for the eyes".
I tend to believe it came down to the federation still not fully understanding the brain and how it translates visual data. From what we see the image he gets is very low res and tends to only be a few colors at a time. this would indicate that they created it to display what they have been able to unlock. This is reinforced by the fact that Geordi see's Dr.crusher regularly to adjust the visor, She would be adjusting it to keep it in sync with his brain as the visor and it's mounts are doing the job of his eyes and optic nerves.
I can't explain this one. I mean. They have hologram technology. They have view screens. They have hand held scanners. So why can't they make it so he can see like a normal person. You also missed out the episode where he almost assasinates a diplomat cause his visor was displaying some code at him. If I remember correctly he could see normally then too. and in the Generations film where the Klingons can see normally through his visor on their view screen...so did his visor get an upgrade? I mean it's a cool feature and I like the idea that they have found a work around for the blind. But could they not have programmed it so he could add filters for different sepctrums?
i knew pretty early that his Visor wasnt „human vision“ because i had a NES game in which you could sent the TNG Crew on missions and Geordi had always a sensory vision. i think the Visor (or other tech) depends on the kind of blindness. there are a lot different kind of disease how you become blind. in my case it was an opticusatrophy that caused my optical nerve to get damaged over time because of a chronic illness and i dont have such white eyes like Geordi. Geordi was probably born blind and his own words tell that it was a genetical defect that could’ve changed before birth (or that other societies wouldve determined him as unworthy to live because of it). We dont know which disease caused his blindness and what was affected because of it. it could be just his pupil, optic nerve or even something in his brain that wasnt be able to work with the informations he would get through a „camera“. Different diseases need different solutions. you cant fix my kind of blindness how you fixed Geordis.
It always bugged me that he couldn't see perfectly, but your explanations on how everyone would have them and it would take away from the characters uniqueness, made me change my judgment after 35 years lol Also, a comment in this section that mentions how photo images might be a lot more difficult to transmit clearly into a persons brian made perfect sense. Yeah a camera is simple in how it works, but replicating vision anatomy to work with a brain is the real challenge. If they had that kind of technology perfected, who knows what other brain signaling/controlling technology they could have.
I would say the Visor sends inputs to a different area of the brain, as the blindness seems to be a bit more complex than the eyes. I think even though it could send visual data, the brain cannot interpret it the same way. So it sends other data that the brain can interpret.
What boggles my mind is that it wasn't standard issue for away teams to carry various lowlight, IR, or other such useful eyewear. Heck, even some safety glasses or sunglasses would help in many cases...
I wonder if Starfleet had such an aversion to cybernetics/augmenting humans, that they kind of had to do an end-run around the laws to make the visor a reality at all, hence why it is a wonky "sensor device" more than it is a basic replacement eye...
Jordy was born blind. Not someone who had sight and became blind. WIthout any knowledge of sight, what would blue look like to someone who has never seen blue? It's like describing the color of X-ray, yet in Jordy's case, this is exactly what it's like. Being blind at birth, his brain doesn't have those optic connections like we do to see Camera colors. His visors literally wire his brain to give eyes to a brain that never had the spot for eyes to begin with. This is probably why things look so weird to us but normal to Jordy. Jordy is reading RAW sensor data, while us "camera" people see a CPU translated image that puts color to pixel. I think giving Jordy a visor to "see" is the equivalent of giving a human the ability to see X-ray to be compatible with a species that sees x-ray. It may seem like giving an unfair advantage, but that's because nothing was toned down. Vision is vision regardless of the spectrum. Our eyes are used to a limited spectrum. A man with no eyes wouldn't be able to tell us his limitations as he never experienced them.
Well in a deleted scene and in the Novelization of the movie it's stated that the Klingons added a camera in to the Visor... But of course, canon doesnt even suggest that!
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios yeah, super suspicious :p but well, I guess we need to take the deleted scene into account then, like, they knew what they were doing then.
I think its more of how the raw data is sent and interpreted by the brain that prevents the visor the ability to send a 'clear' image to the user. If it did send a picture you wouldn't be able to interpret it in your mind
Armchair speculation, but anyway... I rationalized it as the device is capable of perceiving data beyond what normal rods and cones do, and therefore what the device feeds into his brain is beyond the spectrum that normal human biology can detect and interpret. In a few episodes the VISOR served to relay information fairly similar to what heat vision, night vision, or ground-penetrating radar displays. For whatever reason, probably because the writers wanted to have the plot device of making Geordi wish to be like his crewmates, I assumed it was within the VISOR's capability to provide a normal video feed, but it was to Geordi's advantage to see things others simply could not. Following that train of thought Geordi wished the VISOR away to both take away an obvious visual cue that he was different and to alleviate side effects like headaches. In any event, I have no difficulty believing that no matter how well-intentioned the designer of Geordi's device, they would commit an oversight such as omitting a standard camera feed, caught up in the idea that what the device could offer was for all intents superhuman and therefore superior in all situations.
Of his brain never connect nerves to his eyes when he was a child and they gave him the implants then that means maybe they are just using really dance connects that are implanted into his brain and then let his brain try and auto interpret the data. Only problem is if it's like what we current would do is hoping we get good connections the brain can interpret. So if for say the brain started noticing different signals given by the camera instead of the visual only data his brain would adapt for that data by change. Simple put the process of implanting and them hoping for right connects is like the only thing they can do without full understanding of the brain. So he might of started interpreting the signals wrong and so the only way to give him sight he can use would be to adapt the output to give him a full view of the signals he did figure out to interpret. Just meaning he sees differently just because of random chance.
I have to point out a few things for those of you who are sited and think this is a stupid technology. Your eyes do not see anything but rather your brain interprets what you see. In the case of the visor in Discovery and TNG which appear to be somewhat similar devices, it makes sense for them to not have what a sited person would consider photo realistic view. Think about it, you can see in the dark, hazards that the naked eye cannot see, and interpret the world in terms of a spectrum rather than the narrow bands we see. This make perfect sense that sensor data is interpreted by the implants in the brain on a much more effective spectrum than just normal eye site. Even once Geordi had the visor removed and implants put in, he could not see like normal sited folks and could see into the spectrum. Do not forget Data has an augmented lense that obscures his view of reality according to the technical sources. This is done to enhance their capabilities beyond our normal vision and is much more effective than BS, I want their vision to be like ours. To see certain phenomena without a tricorder could be very useful. And who amongst you would not want this type of vision to be available to those in the blind community that would love to have an ability to see only to see them enhance their vision.
Its certainly problematic to be sure! I cant remember if it were ever explained why Gordie was blind in the first place, perhaps even in the 24th century it is nit possible to correct the problem in his brain he has, though in one episode he says that the VISOR is painful for him obviously pain relief has not progressed either in 400 years Haha
I always imagined it was more of a neurological calibration issue… that they couldn’t tune it to show Geordi normal colour because his brain didn’t know what normal colour was. Someone blind since birth can’t really say “yeah, the reds are looking red now, blues are oversaturated though”. The VISOR definitely could pick up and focus on the narrower spectral slice we call visible light, Generations showed it doing exactly that, much to the Enterprise’s detriment.
Except that wouldnt explain why heat spectrum was shown as we would see it a scanner, or how Geordi was able to describe exactly what Picard (and the Audience) was seeing!
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios well there’s no guarantee the view screen was reproducing colour particularly accurately, Geordi didn’t go into precise terminology about the exact hue and saturation of things. Have you ever seen how NTSC shows got converted to PAL in analogue TV days? It was a particularly difficult conversation to do well, so while watchable (I grew addicted to Trek on PAL) colours always looked kinda wrong and oversaturated. The reds of the TNG uniforms could be downright magenta sometimes. And TNG was one of the better shows, that was being shown 3 years behind… NTSC news coverage was so hastily done that your news anchors often looked greener than a blushing Vulcan 😂 So I always imagined the VISOR to have roughly similar shortcomings… or maybe be kinda like the poor colour reproduction of a very cheap/old display. Geordi could probably get a rough idea of what the “visible” EM spectrum would look like, but it would be a poor substitute for real life organic vision without the kind of fine grained colour calibration you need working eyes to properly verify. Until Blu Ray, whenever Geordi talked about wanting to see colours in a natural way there was a good chance I was watching him take orders from a hot pink Picard/Riker, so it made total sense in my head 😁 even now, if you look at a screenshot of your desktop on your phone (or vice versa), or the same photo on both, you’ll see slightly different colour reproduction, the same thing applies to the displays of a thermal scanner.
Geordi has said it just gives his brain Data, er..., information that he had to learn to interpret. Maybe it can , and does, show an average human visual range spectrum image amongst everything else, he just never learned to "flex his cybermuscle" that way. To mentally choose to see "normal". Probably to caught up on "women don't like the poor blind boy" mentality that it was a crutch he needed [to not see"normally"]. That and it was just a poorly thought out plot devise. Discovery had a mostly cybernetic person who could see like every one else bout'a 100 years earlier so... they had the technology, they could rebuild him...
ok so, lot of speculation here. Geordi was born blind, so in his early years his brain never developed the connections to process visual data in the same way we do. Our brains do a LOT of processing of the raw visual input from our eyes. It fills in data where there is none, smooths out rough spots, etc. It's like when a child is raised without learning a language, by the time they're grown, that part of their brain hasn't developed. so the visor may well be able to operate as a camera, but for whatever reason Geordi didn't develop the ability to work with that basic visual spectrum. Now we don't know precisely the nature of Geordi's blindness. Whether it was an eye or brain defect. This can make all the difference in the world on how he's able to process visual input. It might be using an entirely different part of his brain that he's trained to work with what the visor provides. TL;DR the Visor can work as a camera just fine, but Geordi's specific situation may prevent that functionality from being of any use to him.
What really bothers me is the ridiculous notion that anyone would play poker with a dude who can see through the cards, and chick who can read your mind, a machine who can count cards, a violent alien who has to control his temper, and your superior officer? P.S. If money no longer exists, what are they playing for?
Oh come on James! What kind of "true" Star Trek fan doesnt know that they were playing for the highly sought after plastic discs and the shaving off of ones beard! ;) :P
Perhaps the visual cortex of his brain was defective, so the visor hooks into other areas of the brain to provide a synthesis of sight, but therefore cannot use the normal visual spectrum because it cannot be processed in the usual way.
That doesnt work either on many levels, as we're told in S2 that Pulaski could replace the visor and he could see normally, and First Contact shows us that Occular implants can see a normal picture just fine!
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios Pulaski's options were not without downsides/risks. It's possible between Season 2 and First Contact medical science advanced to mitigate those outcomes. Plus, I think Geordi's guilt over his VISOR being used to give the Duras sisters and advantage was the push he needed to finally take the chance. Non-canonical, I know, but with a bit of stardust it makes a lot of sense.
Well given that we saw a Visor in S2 E1 of DSC, means the technology was around for over a century, so the idea that Medical Science would suddenly jump between S2 and FC is a little out there, though entirely possible. And I too think it was guilt that made Geordi get the implants, but the OP posted "Perhaps the visual cortex of his brain was defective" which if it were, a) we'd hear about it sometime in the series and b) The same problem would exist with Occular Implants, and it does not!
Best explanation I could think of, so grains of salt and all. But I always took the 'live feed' as the computer on the Enterprise doing its best to interpret the synthetic neural signals the visor provided to a human brain. Since its a digital computer its doing its best to translate them into something that can be shown on a screen. I always would just assume he could see as we see, maybe delayed or otherwise not as perfect, but also could see in other spectrum as well.
Yeah that doesnt really work, as it's explained that it is the same signal as Geordi sees. Meaning the device is transmitting the same signal to the Enterprise! :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios Sure, same signal, but one would be a biological signal, the other having to be interpreted by a digital computer, mostly just head cannon for me to make sence of it all
I understand completely for the need to explain this illogical point, but that is the point of the video, that it Doesn't Make Sense... It's really no different then a Web Camera transmitting a picture to different computers... And again we know the Computer isnt actually transmitting a different interpreted image as Geordi describes exactly what he sees to Picard and it's the same thing we see on screen :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios Agreed, does not make a lick of sense, if Data could have vision, Geordi could as well. I only remember seeing one off other visors here and there, so it would not seem to be a common thing in the universe, and I cant imagine he was the only blind person out there.
I think it does make sense in the context of the writing and science of the late 80s and early 90s. But I'll say that even with current trends in the technology that more than likely such a device wouldn't bother trying to make images for the brain which map to sighted people's perceptions because here in this context I believe Geordi was born blind and therefore his brain being exposed to sight at an older age would require him to train with the device more than a sighted person. So in theory, even if the visor could produce analogous imagery to human sight Geordi's visual cortex might not have the ability to parse it normally. So you could say the visor pulls back a bit with the data to give him enough feedback that he can, with special training, be able to make sense of the data given to him. So maybe the example of the in-series images (both in the series and in Generations) might not be good comparisons that are analogous to what he really receives.
Also, I think the concept of the requirement of special training with the visor would also explain why most sighted people in universe wouldn't normally request the implantation.
As far why everyone doesn't have one, I imaging its a fairly invasive surgery that involves fiddling with a persons brain. In Geordi's case, there was good reason to do so. But on an elective basis I would think people would not be running out and getting extra parts attached. There is also the "prohibition" in Star Trek about augmenting or enhancing people due to the fallout of the Eugenics Wars. Many in the ST:TNG universe may think of this the same way. That being said, the visor could be an invaluable tool in engineering or troubleshooting systems and components. And based on the clip you used in this video, it can be displayed for a normal person to see. It seems that that would be a more useful application than to just give a few blind people sight.
I think it does make sense only because Geordi is offered other alternatives throughout the series, but turns them down since they couldn't scan as diverse a range as the Visor. As one option out of who knows how many, it does make sense.
He turned other options down because those options might not work, and that once the procedure was done, he wouldnt be able to go back if it didnt work!
Those are some interesting points, honestly. I have a question about whether he was born blind or if he lost his sight for some reason, I can not remember. If he was born that way, and that he always had the visor, than normal vision becomes relative. What we see is what our brain interprets, but we never actually know what he sees when the visor inputs data. We see what the visor is displaying, but what does La Forge's brain actually "see". It's kinda like how some people that are blind have learned how to click their tongues and listen for the echo to determine distances and rough size and shape of objects. People with sight would probably have a much harder time learning that. Similar with the VISOR, Geordi wore it all his life, until the implants, meaning his brain must have adapted to the sensory input for the wide array of spectra. Although, most importantly, plot points and story progressing over ride all of that
I think there was an episiode with Pulaski maybe? Where he was offered cybernetic sight via occular implats, but there was a chance they would not work. Something to do with the fact that no one was sure at the time *why* LaForge couldn't see. The visor itself seemed to be a one off and until it wasn't until the great invention of teasing Burton was invented by McFadden and Sirtis resulting of the breakingof the visor just prior to the begining of filming for Fist Contact that Star Fleet had the tech to build LaForge eyes.
Im sorry Gabby but you're incorrect about "the fact that no one was sure at the time why LaForge couldn't see" that is never stated in any episode. In the Pulaski episode Geordi declined based on his belief that the technology was not yet advanced enough to afford the same visual range as a visor, and if he had the procedure and it didnt work, that there was no going back! Second, where did you get the idea that in First Contact the Visor broke so they gave him eyes? Ive never seen or read that anywhere. I believe this might be a fan myth, so if you could relay your source Id appreciate it :) Thank you :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios It was Crusher, S1 E1, who suggested exploratory surgery to desensitize parts of the brain, Pulaski offered an experimental surgery to replaces the his eyes with cybernetic implants in S2 E5. She stated it had only been done twice before, and there were no guarantees of success and no going back. Between the those two I always assumed the exact nature of LaForge's disability was rare enough that no one really understood what was wrong, how exactly the visor interfaced, hence the need for exploratory surgery. We do see a visor in DISCO S2 E1, but it was a much bulkier construction, and we see cybernetic eyes in the same time line, which suggests that there are some biological requirements for the cybernetic eyes. As to thw breaking of the visor, guess I could see McFadden and Sirtis teasing Burton and accidentally breaking it, so I believed it.
Well yes, Crusher said what she said due to Geordi's Headaches, and Pulaski said that SHE had only done it twice. Meaning, we dont know if other had done it as well. Neither of which support your original comment of "Something to do with the fact that no one was sure at the time why LaForge couldn't see..." I completely get the confusion though, and the assumptions you made as a result, but the truth is, that's all they were, assumptions, that sadly were not correct. And if you do ever come across a source for the FC comment, Id love to see it to be able to include it in my future FC Historical Overview :) Thank you so much for the comments! :) Keep Trekkin' :)
I always figured the limitation had more to do with Geordi’s specific biology - that it precluded using something as simple as a “camera.” Between his brain and optical nerves he just didn’t have the facility to use a prosthetic that would do that job, hence the weirdness of the visor.
I guess thats the Visor is indeed a) a scanner and not a camera and b) and electric device. The problem in this would be to translate this data into a human mind understandable input. Consciousness makes Morse code readable non the less it's just beebing and silence our ears hear. Our ears don't hear an A an O or an P but our brain regocnizes the patterns, that cobbles this together as a word or sentence. As Geordy said a person needs to learn to interpret the data from the visor. Even if we could simply connect a camera to a brain it wouldn't give much more than electric signals that out brain wouldn't understand unless somebody exactly and mc guffinly now how to code the electric signal to ones visual nervous system in the right codec to let it not have any difference. The signal would have be to be the same energy signal as our eye does. And this for every nuance of light, dark and colors. But the Visor don't seem to connect to the same parts as an eye does.
You also got to remember how long he's had the VISOR as well, this isn't 2360's tech [the era when TNG takes place] this is late 2340''s tech so it isn't perfect. Like a computer, in this case, the brain extrapolates the data being seen. Think of the VISOR like a pair of glasses a focus point where Geordi can look around him and see in different spectrums that normal human eyes can't. He had been offered the early versions of the implants in the 5th season of the show, he declined them because for one he didn't trust the technology then. But, by Generations, the tech had progressed enough that he wouldn't lose everything that the VISOR had done prior. In beta cannon, there is a book in the TNG era that focuses on the VISOR and Geordi. You think it's in the past, but it's actually him mulling over getting the implants in the 2360s and what it could give him. Though in 2370, when the movie era takes place after Generations. He has the implants because the tech has progressed to a point where he loses nothing that his VISOR didn't already give him.
I always assumed that there was a standard issue civilian model of the VISOR and he received an engineering specific model when enlisting. It would be handy to have 75% of the capabilities of a tricorder with both hands free.
Im sorry, but theres no evidence in canon to support the idea of different models... In fact quite the opposite is Canon. As in multiple episodes we see Geordi pining to see like Humans do, so if he could just switch the model, he wouldnt be pining for it.
Genetic enhanced super humans were outlawed due to eugenics wars but it seems that a loophole was advanced cybernetics, especially if it could be argued as a replacement for a birth defect.
What Geordi sees through is visor IS a normal picture, to him. Geordi was born blind, he has no concept of what a normal picture should look like. If a camera was wired into his VISOR and showed him a photorealistic picture he would probably think it was weird looking and focused too much on the 300-800 nm EM range. This also explains why other people don't use a VISOR. It's probably a lot easier for a blind person to make use of superhuman vision than a not blind person. It's like learning a new language for a young child versus an adult
The question here isnt what Geordi sees as normal. Besides, we know he doesnt see it as normal, because in episodes like The Naked Now and Hide and Q, along with the Movie Insurrection, he pines for the ability to see normally! So if he thought his vision was normal, he wouldnt pine!
The reason Geordi's visor doesn't work like a picture is because his visual neurons are malformed and don't process like everyone else's. I believe there was an episode that explained this.
There was/ is no episode that said that, at least not in the connection that you think it might... Do you know what episode you're referring too, or other stuff about the episode so we can check out exactly what he says?
80s technology.nthey didn't think you could have a photo realistic image displayed digitally in real time. Blocky was cutting edge at the time and us kids thought it was cool looking and futuristic.
Geordi was never able to see through normal eyes... so, when he got the visor he must have learned to see, to interpret signals he got. Therefore, what he sees is normal for him and it in much wider spectra region. It is only natural that the output looks strangely for us. I think the connection to brain is something akin to what the Neuralink should be. BTW, I have seen some articles where they presented EEG translated into images. What the experimentee imagined was visible on screen... it looked vague...
I think it may have something to do with the way HIS brain works. How HE chooses to see things and someone in connection with the visor….if that makes sense.
Considering Geordie was born with out normal site the brain would have as much trouble interpreting the data. if normal visual information was given him but the the device should have been able to be upgraded to eventually providing a normal picture.
@@TheHeroRises I’m betting HR was quite familiar with Mr. LaForge after Dr. Braum’s holo-stalking charges… and probably other creeped out Enterprise crew members 😆
If i recall a card game right he can see though the right kind of poker cards so it really shouldn't be to much of a leap to say some fabrics would have the same problem.
What we see is the result of our brain interpreting the input it receives from our eyes. What that episodes puts on the viewscreen is not what Geordie sees, it's the input his brain receives from the visor, before it does interpreting. I think this analogous video- and picture files on computers. At their fundamental level those files are long sequences of ones and zeros - like all computer files. To read those as a video or picture a codec is used. Now if you open a file using the wrong codec you get meaningless gibberish, that is impossible to interpret. Take a picture file, change the ending from jpeg to pdf and try to open it in a pdf reader. In my opinion that's essentially what the Enterprise-crew did, when they sent Geordie's visor data to the viewscreen on the bridge. The proper codec to make sense of the input exists in Geordie's brain and nowhere else. However: Generations kind of broke that interpretation, because when the Lursa and B'Etor used Geordie's visor to spy on the Enterprise, they got perfectly normal pictures... Well, I guess that's Star Trek's 47,238,129,281th inconsistency.
Where the Klingons in Generations using his visor to see the shield frequency? That seemed like a normal picture, maybe he has various modes or something.
I say the connection between the visor and this organic interface isn't perfect... technology to technology interface is different! good as it can get... good enough for me unless we can do it in real life! lol
My head cannon was that the designers of the VISOR sent a “raw” signal to the brain and let the brain filter out what wasn’t needed rather than trying to synthesize a particular signal. Geordi says as much in “Heart of Glory.” We saw a jumble of mess but for him it could have been something akin to augmented reality, a more photographic scene with other signals layered on top. The brain is surprisingly good at adapting. We do it all the time with our ears where we can tune out the noise of a packed room and listen to an individual conversation. However if you listened to a recoding of it with no context it would sound meaningless. The brain can do similar things with the eyes, a person can wear goggles that invert their vision and eventually your brain will correct for it.
These were my thoughts as well. There might also be implanted chips in Geordi's head that help process the data. So the Enterprise got all the signals where Geordi's implants could separate the signals with a mear thought from him.
What always puzzled me was in the movie Generations how the Klingons were able to modify his visor enough to see perfectly... And we all know what happened next lol
I'm glad someone mentioned this. Strictly speaking, I don't think the Duras sisters modified the visor (which would have been obvious to Geordi) so much as made it send a feed (like in Heart Of Glory) and then used some serious Digital Signal Processing to get a true-color image. Either that or they were sending only a very small section of the full feed.
Either way, it calls the events of Heart Of Glory into question.
I think it’s because when it interfaces with the nerves duplicating sight is very hard kind of like how cancer is cured but the common cold is still an issue.
The Klingons just tapped the output the out put data not needing to be converted into the signal that a optical nerve can read it simply out puts video.
If they had a spent a Couple of moments explaining how The Klingons tricked the enterprise computer into not sensing unauthorized out going communications
Not to mention the views of what Geordi saw via his visor in the episode The Mind's Eye, he he was captured by the Romulans, and subconsciously programmed to assassinate a Klingon governor.
I took it as the connection to the brain as the issue. Granted we know brain science has advanced to the point where they've all but eradicated headaches ("The Battle"), however that doesn't mean they've perfected the ability to replace our visual cortex (sorry off I'm inaccurate).
We do know that the VISOR causes headaches (which, again, are canonically rare), so it's not the perfect solution for using hardware to replace biological parts. I imagine his later ocular implants utilize the parts of the eye the VISOR doesn't. The VISOR in effect does an end run around the eyes and directly connects to the brain.
Maybe I'm way off base here, but it's the only thing that seemingly makes sense.
Im liking this explanation the most thus far! Well done :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios Thank you! It's been bouncing around my head for a while to explain this!
Well so far, Id say this was best and most well thought out explanation :)
That was my take, too. It was a "good enough" solution that they couldn't get perfect because every brain is different, but it was better than nothing (and they were able to add a couple of extra colours to it because that wasn't the hard part). At the end of they day, he was able to adapt to it and find a way to interpret the data in a way that allowed him to function as a normal sighted person, and that was their goal.
Love the series so far, I like how you are questioning the logical thinking behind the original ideas without being detrimental to the source material, clever idea 💡
Thank you, Glad you enjoy it! And yes, this series is only to promote discussion, not really condemn the choices, or even necessarily be right about my own position! Sometimes it's even just a Devil's Advocate position entirely ;)
As I understood it, the cause of Geordi's blindness was specifically that his optic nerves just didn't work - as opposed to various other forms of blindness, it was caused by a lack of function in the nerves themselves. What this means is that, in order for Geordi to "see" the VISOR has to basically hack other parts of his brain to _synthesise_ "sight" using parts of his brain which aren't designed for that purpose. This was why there were interface jacks on his temples - they were wet-wired into his brain in order to allow stimulation of other nerve centres besides the ones which interpret visual stimulii.
Essentially, the VISOR system causes controlled instances of synaesthesia in Geordi's brain - rather than processing visual information with his visual cortex, the wetware sparks off sensations in other areas which give him a similar effect to the green-and-purple spots you get in your eyes sometimes. Those spots aren't actually physically _there_ and nobody else can see them, they're just neurological feedback causing false positives in the brain's visual perception; _that's_ what Geordi "sees" when the VISOR buzzes certain nerve clusters in his brain.
After some time getting used to it, the differing patterns and intensities would become something which could be interpreted by the brain and understood well enough to give the wearer some idea of what's going on - enough to avoid bumping into things, and possibly even discern the shape of objects and surfaces - but it would be far from seeing everything in glorious Technicolor. The VISOR isn't a miraculous cure from blindness, it's a cludged-together neuro-hack to give some vague semblance of actual vision while cutting the intended nerve centres out of the equation... it's a bodge-job workaround rather than an elegant solution, which is why Geordi would still want something better. He might be able to see wifi signals, but he couldn't read a comic book.
Of course, that's not something which was necessarily explained to all the writers chosen to write Geordi's character, which is where we get the "I can see as well as anyone else" stuff in some episodes...
Oh yes! Thank you! I've been waiting for this! And as someone who has worn glasses all of his life, Geordi's VISOR is something I've thought about.
Does Geordi's VISOR makes sense? Yes!
Think about what we know about how the eyes work ..... and don't work. A picture comes through a flexible lens, get's flipped upside down, and run through an Iris that changes diameter according to how much light is needed. The picture is then slammed onto the back of the eyeball where rode and cones breaks the picture down, and shoved towards the optical nerve. Once it hits the optical part of the brain, the brain is then able to rebuild the picture into something we understand. The issue here comes down; in my opinion, to how rods and cones work ..... exactly. Exactly what signals are being sent? How are these signals being interpreted by the brain.
The other thing about the VISOR is weight. From the look of it, the VISOR is made to be light weight so it rests upon the nose of the wearer; like a pair of glasses, and easily attaches to the two connector by the temples. When one wears glasses a lot, weight is very important.
For your thought about attaching a "camera" to the VISOR, here a thought for you: the VISOR grants the wearer a 180 degree field of view. To grant the wearer that same ability, you would need something like the five-lenses night vision goggles that is used by special military forces. Even if you do consider the differences in technologies, that would probably make Geordi's "headaches" worst. If you really want camera's on Geordi's face, think Borg implants!
There is one more thing to consider: the VISOR was a long term experiment Geordi was working with. I say this for one reason ...... Star Trek: First Contact. In the scene where Zefram Cochrane tries to run from Geordi, we were given a inside view of Geordi's new ocular implants where an arm with a magnifying lense dropped down, and clicked into place thereby magnifying Geordi's vision.
These are just my thoughts. Destroy them at will!
It obviously should be able to provide a normal Camera picture as well. That does not contradict the possibility to show various sensor data as well. One could imagine several different modes that Geordie can switch between, maybe a bit like a normal photo with an overlay of additional data or some additional functionality like zooming in or x-ray-vision. That’s how I would imagine a visor.
The depiction in Star Trek TNG was very irritating to me as well. I just put it aside thinking that this was mostly due to a lack of possibilities to visualize the true thing to a TV audience. Or that it meant that the data he gets is so much more than what is in a normal picture, that they decided to make all those false color overlays to visualize that his brain is making sense of all that and gets out even more details.
Unfortunately the canon of the entire piece is just ridiculously irritating, like you, I too thought he'd see as humans could and then better with different modes... Like a Tricorder attached to his brain!
i agree.
I feel like I remember an episode where Geordi says he liked his visor that way because it made it easier to do his job. I might be imagining things.
I agree, when that episode premiered I thought "that sucks, 300 years in the future and no one could hook Geordi up with a camera?" I guess it would have gave him superman abilities if he had Predator-like super vision.
Yeah, it doesnt make a lot of sense!
The comments are off the chain with this one. Way to spark conversation with this video. Well done good sir
That's the goal, though I wish people wouldnt take things so personally sometimes...
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios That's the Internet for ya. Don't let it get you down. Stiff upper lip and all that jazz
Absolutely, always ;) :)
The best explanation is the sensor gives a complete EM Spectrum image from Radio to Gamma. The Visual light band is very narrow and would be lost in the influx of information. I imagine it is quite a chore to mentally isolate the various wavelengths without help from the image processor. Some people actually can see the fringes of the visual spectrum. People with light colored (Blue etc) eyes can see the redder part of the spectrum compared to those with darker colored eyes. Since the processor cannot determine what he would naturally see it gives it all to him, and lets the brain sort it out.
I like in the later TNG films after Generations that Geordi's visor was replaced with enhanced robotic eyes. I liked that instead of the clumsy visor. At least the new eyes won't give Laforge headaches the way his visor did on occasion.
In the episode with the counterfeit phaser rifle, Geordi is seen using the flip-up sight. We have no indication he has pinhole vision.
(Also, he's testing a suspicious weapon _meters_ from a warp core, while Data stands _a foot away_ from the target. ;-)
This is a VERY good point!
I could argue the interference we see in the scene in Heart of Glory was due to the Visor was design for a human brain...and the ENT-D couldn't process the constant change in sensor Data very well...as LaForge puts it in the episode, "I select what I want and then disregard the rest."
Also keep in mind that even at the start of TNG, Visors were considered to old tech...there is a scene with Pulaski trying to convince LaForge to get artificial eyes as the Visor was known to give headaches, but at the time LaForge wasn't impress by their specs...so it is possible there was technology that could replicate human vision more accurately, but LaForge wanted the extra sensor data
From what I understand from the episode "Heart of Glory"
To an outside observers prospective such as the bridge crew, his vision was just an indistinguishable jumble of different frequencies and bandwidths.
However, Geordi did explain that his sight behaves much like that of hearing and background noises.
That is, you learn to select the ones that are the most applicable for your needs at the moment and disregard the ones that aren not.
This could also explain away his many apparent discrepancies with his sight and how Soran and the Duras sisters where able to hack into it and calibrate it for their needs.
I still can't unsee Geordi's Visor skit from Family Guy...
Please do more of these!
Good stuff.
Thank you so much :)
I always saw it as a goofy piece tech of the 1980's Trek, I would prefer ocular implant over the visor.
At the time it was amazing, now it's silly ;)
There is current trials, and has been for at least a decade, to use "sensor" data and write it to the human brain to allow a person to "see". I thought his Visor was akin to a video camera seeing the visible spectrum plus UV and IR and beyond. There would have to be a way to connect the Visor through its attachment points on his temples and into the vision part of the brain. Also a way to filter the mass input, to see color or IR or UV or radio waves or whatever in the EM Spectrum.
Just like a tricorder from TOS in the '60s has been built and is used in industry, medicine and everyday use, Geordi's Visor may eventually become reality, just not as cheesy looking.
I agree with the explanation that the visor exists, but may not be completely perfected to the point where it helps a person who’s born blind see absolutely perfectly.
It definitely helps Geordi and is better than him having nothing, but it could still be a technology that’s being improved upon (until we see his upgrade in First Contact and beyond).
One thing I’ve often wondered is how is he able to read with the VISOR with so much visual distortion? I would think they’d make it a lot easier for him to see sensor readouts, or even the basic controls of the LCARS interface
A great point!
I had always assumed that Geordi's visor sent all the data it perceived through his temple implants to be deciphered and then input into his brain to be experienced as "sight". The "Heart of Glory" episode merely displayed all of the data to the viewscreen. It is up to Geordi's brain to interpret what he needs and then ignore the rest.
Having said that, I also wondered how he saw the controls of the LCARS' panels. My only guess is that Geordi was able to tune into the EM spectrum the panels displayed.
(Of course since 23rd century medicine has little blue pills that can regrow a new kidney, ST3 if I recall correctly; the one with the 🐳 🐳, they should have been able to (re)grow Geordi's eyes and optic nerves. Instead of relying on experimental hardware that didn't quite work as intended.)
I think we can all agree that what makes the most sense is Geordi's banana clip visor would look great in Troi's hair!!! Kirk Forever!!!
Since it is a technological device it seems logical that it would show things that our organic eyes cannot so the visor does make sense in that it can let Geordi see what we cannot and he no doubt was trained in how to interpret what he was "seeing".
What's interesting is that both Geordi and his VISOR influenced the creation of an optical viewing device in the late 90s that was developed based on NASA technology that help the visually impaired see and read by using cameras and magnifying glass and was named JORDY (Joint Optical Reflective Display) after the character.
It was an interesting idea that they played with with his visor. Though like some of the other comments i have read it wasn't perfect, seeing they still were working on ways to adapt disabilities of the mind. Even though it didn't give him a clear picture, it was able to give him some insight to other things that a normal person would miss through normal visual observation. This is probably what gave Geordi such an advantage in engineering.
Though I do think that they are far enough in the future to have the ability to have Geordi to see a clear picture. I am also on the line with what Qexilber said, that the visor should have enhanced his visions well beyond the normal human with a verity of enhanced visual settings. Still, the concept was one that they played with, and it gave some credit to the blind, indicating even in the future the human race still had genetic problems, but Starfleet and the Federation gave these people a chance to work a normal life.
I believe the idea was that the VISOR picks up the electromagnetic wavelengths from somewhere in the infra-red, to (probably) UV-B, then compresses them into the range from about 700 nm (deep red) to around 400 nm (violet), which is what most of us can see with our normal Mk. I eyeballs.
I thought at first, the visor was to help jordi see certain forms of radiation that the warp core emits and didnt know he was blind. I was expecting by the TNG era, cameras as big as an eyeball will be used to supplement (if one eye is blind) or give sight (for both eyes). Later it was used in the TNG films. It woud be even cooler if the eyes had a phaser built in so the person can use it depending in the situation... like a certain kryptonian.
LMAO LOL LOL Phaser Eyes? LOL :)
You mean like cyclops in xmen?
@@Ottophil yep. hahaha.
After this episode I always wondered how Geordi interact with LCARS or any other light-intermitting interface like, e.g. Hologramms
That is an EXCELLENT question!
Wow, I never even considered how Geordi percieved holograms... Maybe the computer altered the Holodeck emitters so that objects it created also displayed their image/shape with augmented EM specteum wavelengths so that he could "see" the holograms along with the other occupants.
This is a stretch but… Maybe the crazy visual imagery had to do with the fact that Geordi was born blind? Like the visor was picking up all sorts of light beyond the human visible light spectrum, and basically just shunted it all through his poorly formed/unformed optic nerves in an effort to get anything transmitted through his optic nerves to his brain?
And I don’t remember this, but did they ever say that Geordi’s visor was a prototype or anything? If so, maybe that could explain (1) How bad his visual input looked in TNG, (2) How/Why you see some background characters in Lower Decks also sporting LaForge-style visors, and (3) How/Why Geordi’s replacement implants in First Contact were so much better (visible light only, he could “zoom ‘n’ enhance” like CSI, etc.).
Great video, Triangulum! This is a fun series 😁
I'm pretty sure the show made several attempts to imply that sending perfectly accurate electrical signals to the brain that would result in perfect vision is still pretty difficult to do even for the 3360s. Now, after the 3360s? I think his sight did get better as advancements in sending the desired electrical signals to the brain with extreme precision became available, Because we also got to see what Geordi's sight looked like in First Contact when he and Riker were trying to find Cochrane in the woods.
I think (overthinking it) that the images displayed on the screen aren’t exactly how he ‘sees’. After all, it’s designed to speak to a brain, and be interpreted by said brain. So when it’s displayed on screen, it’s showing the ‘raw’ footage, not how he interprets it.
I expect it’s a little bit like how a cochlea implant works. Its interpreted by the brain, but doesn’t sound like real sounds.
But also I agree with your analysis whereby having his visor be just like a high definition camera removes the purpose of him being blind as a character trait. If that’s the case, it’s little more than face jewellery.
I think it boils down to the old adage, how do you describe color to a blind person. While it might have been possible to hook up a camera to Gordi's brain the visor was only half the tech involved here, the second was the implant itself that the visor connects to. Remember the reason why they couldn't just make him synthetic eyes was there was nothing to attach them to, the part of his brain that could receive those signals was not there. So the implant was meant to replace that missing piece, it caused him pain and discomfort but allowed his brain to understand the binary data and in that respect he had to learn what those impulses are just like we learn what colors are and how to identify them. For you or me it would make no sense because our brains already know what red, blue and green are. It does still seem like the tech is oddly...dated for TNG but until the borg Star fleet didn't seem to be too far along when it came to brain implants though they claimed they had it mapped and understood. That just how I understood it at least.
He finally got artificial eyes later on. I remember that scene in Star Trek: First Contact. And then in the next movie, his eyes became normal due to regeneration of cells
thank you very much for this nice video
You are most welcome :)
I always assumed an adult that goes blind would get a photo-realistic visor because that's what they grew up viewing. Since Geordi went blind at an early age he could learn to decipher the "more detailed" images of his visor. Seeing the color of a person's skin is nice, but seeing fluctuations in the temp, humidity, and conductivity of their skin is arguably more useful.
Just like any prosthetic, I'm sure it's customized for each user. As an engineer he'd have more use for seeing variable fields, mechanical imperfections, and circuit paths than pretty colors so he probably chose the settings based on what he was comfortable with.
I feel like how I would explain what we see in the show is like translating 3d into 2d it 4d into either. You have to compromise the image to translate it to something our eyes can make sense of. Like I feel if Geordi had a choice in what he could see, he would have chosen the most advanced and capable one, and a blind individual with a visor who isn't an engineer might choose a regular RGB vision.
if memory serves me well , Geordi was born blind so he didn't have the optic nerves to began with, if he had been then the VISOR would have worked look a set of high-tech glasses for him, but it has to do is 'guess' at what things would look like to Geordi and place them it the correct order and shape. and being mostly based off a type of scanner he can't really see like a normal person does.
He was not just blind. He had a unique condition. The implication was this was the only option to have any sight, not the ideal.
Cloned implants replace it in many alternate futures because the idea being a better method for him was found
Actually, in S2 Pulaski asks him why he doesnt have implants, and offers them to him... His reason is that they may not actually work and that if they didnt, there was no going back...
It should be able to as the visual light is part of the spectrum as inferred and ultraviolet light so it should be able to show some kind of conventional image.
Agreed :)
I feel the VISOR's purpose was never really to give sight to the blind as a normal visual image would, but that it was an "enhancement" sort of that showed a lot more outside the visual spectrum which someone not used to seeing through the device couldn't really parse. That the VISOR was even meant to translate visible light into brain signals so someone could see just like normal sight feels to me like an assumption we make; that the tech should make it to where a blind person could see like we do, but just because human eyes evolved in this way doesn't mean that's the only way to "see". It's confusing and philosophical lol. That's at least how I always grasped it and made it work with canon. Geordi could see more and better than average person with sight but he still had a desire to see stuff from time to time like normal eyes would, same way Data was far advanced beyond human abilities but strived to be human. I saw it as two sides of the same theme in TNG and one reason they bonded so well.
I could think of only two reasons.
One: Due to it not being limited to the visual spectrum, the entirety of the optical range is displayed (we all know that our visual range is but a small subsection of the whole range) and the viewscreen (which was designed to only ever show things in our humanoid spectrum) struggles to display the full range and thus screwed the view up totally. This explanation follows Data’s logic of the Visor being superior to normal eyes.
Two: It is, as usual, the biological component that struggles to adapt to the technological aid, much like Neil Blumengarten wrote.
The reason that I really like this video is cause you go beyond explaining what the visor can’t do and explain why the logic of what it does “in universe” makes it impossible for the visor to not have at least the ability to see normally.
I liked how U mentioned the reasoning adding side plots which is likely the reason but your in universe review of the tech is thorough and I can not find any holes in the logic.
I agree. When they showed what Geordi sees, it was silly he could see those wavelengths and not a normal image. I also thought that could be adjusted, but nope.
They have that fancy holodeck and can't make a good visor?
i like to think that the tech is in fact around that would be able to allow Geordi to see normally, but the technology perhaps is bulky or provides a form of lag as it compresses the scanned data and re-constitutes it to something akin to normal human vision or more prone to damage. So rather than suffer the extra bulk or the delay in video (which for a starfleet officer is a bad thing, especially someone on the helm then engineering), Geordi made the conscious choice to forgo that aspect .
I always thought that they used infrared shooting into the pupils
I suppose it's because the VISOR has a broader perception range than human eyes, and that translates into different outputs. Geordi has experience in interpreting this color soup and making sense of it that people seeing the same things can't.
The greater question is, since that sensory overload gives him headaches, why not reduce it?
I have two possible explanations: one is that te VISOR is based in non human technology (the Andorian/ Aenar, for example), and humans weren't that good at tinkering with it yet - in essence, Geordi's visor would be a 1st generation prototype. The other explanation is that Geordi finds the migraines an acceptable trade-off for better awareness of what's going around him.
As a legally blind person myself, since my012, I agree with the complaint that the VISOR can't show photorealistic pictures, but ST has always been about diversity. I always wonder what would happen if Geordie ran into a new race that had no concept of vision at all. Being blind is not an absolute, it's a wide spectrum. In my own case, 70% of my optic nerves are dead due to a brain condition called hydrocephalus: my vision is like looking at a very old color TV with heavy snow and some of the color washed out. Only 2% of blind people in the world are completely blind.
I suppose what the producers wanted was a "tricorder for the eyes".
Is it my imagination, or does Geordi's visor resemble those folding hair clip things at 0:19? 🙂
LOL, well that IS it's origin outside the universe :P
I tend to believe it came down to the federation still not fully understanding the brain and how it translates visual data. From what we see the image he gets is very low res and tends to only be a few colors at a time. this would indicate that they created it to display what they have been able to unlock. This is reinforced by the fact that Geordi see's Dr.crusher regularly to adjust the visor, She would be adjusting it to keep it in sync with his brain as the visor and it's mounts are doing the job of his eyes and optic nerves.
I can't explain this one.
I mean. They have hologram technology. They have view screens. They have hand held scanners. So why can't they make it so he can see like a normal person.
You also missed out the episode where he almost assasinates a diplomat cause his visor was displaying some code at him. If I remember correctly he could see normally then too. and in the Generations film where the Klingons can see normally through his visor on their view screen...so did his visor get an upgrade?
I mean it's a cool feature and I like the idea that they have found a work around for the blind. But could they not have programmed it so he could add filters for different sepctrums?
It was early terminator technology. It's what happens when machines make you technically.
i knew pretty early that his Visor wasnt „human vision“ because i had a NES game in which you could sent the TNG Crew on missions and Geordi had always a sensory vision.
i think the Visor (or other tech) depends on the kind of blindness. there are a lot different kind of disease how you become blind. in my case it was an opticusatrophy that caused my optical nerve to get damaged over time because of a chronic illness and i dont have such white eyes like Geordi.
Geordi was probably born blind and his own words tell that it was a genetical defect that could’ve changed before birth (or that other societies wouldve determined him as unworthy to live because of it). We dont know which disease caused his blindness and what was affected because of it. it could be just his pupil, optic nerve or even something in his brain that wasnt be able to work with the informations he would get through a „camera“.
Different diseases need different solutions. you cant fix my kind of blindness how you fixed Geordis.
It always bugged me that he couldn't see perfectly, but your explanations on how everyone would have them and it would take away from the characters uniqueness, made me change my judgment after 35 years lol
Also, a comment in this section that mentions how photo images might be a lot more difficult to transmit clearly into a persons brian made perfect sense. Yeah a camera is simple in how it works, but replicating vision anatomy to work with a brain is the real challenge. If they had that kind of technology perfected, who knows what other brain signaling/controlling technology they could have.
I would say the Visor sends inputs to a different area of the brain, as the blindness seems to be a bit more complex than the eyes. I think even though it could send visual data, the brain cannot interpret it the same way. So it sends other data that the brain can interpret.
What boggles my mind is that it wasn't standard issue for away teams to carry various lowlight, IR, or other such useful eyewear. Heck, even some safety glasses or sunglasses would help in many cases...
I wonder if Starfleet had such an aversion to cybernetics/augmenting humans, that they kind of had to do an end-run around the laws to make the visor a reality at all, hence why it is a wonky "sensor device" more than it is a basic replacement eye...
My explanation for his visor is simple... it was the 80s and the first season of TNG was more or less terrible.
LOL funny, but not really the point :P
As far as the first season being bad. Every series first year is bad. All the actors are trying to get a feel for how they'll play the character.
now I'm wondering what the blind lady in the original series was actually seeing with that dress filled with sensors and how that thing worked
Jordy was born blind. Not someone who had sight and became blind. WIthout any knowledge of sight, what would blue look like to someone who has never seen blue? It's like describing the color of X-ray, yet in Jordy's case, this is exactly what it's like.
Being blind at birth, his brain doesn't have those optic connections like we do to see Camera colors. His visors literally wire his brain to give eyes to a brain that never had the spot for eyes to begin with. This is probably why things look so weird to us but normal to Jordy. Jordy is reading RAW sensor data, while us "camera" people see a CPU translated image that puts color to pixel.
I think giving Jordy a visor to "see" is the equivalent of giving a human the ability to see X-ray to be compatible with a species that sees x-ray. It may seem like giving an unfair advantage, but that's because nothing was toned down. Vision is vision regardless of the spectrum. Our eyes are used to a limited spectrum. A man with no eyes wouldn't be able to tell us his limitations as he never experienced them.
If they could replicate worfs organic spine replacement,then why not jordies eyes or hair for Picard...?
Exactly, doesnt make a lot of sense!
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios didn't jordies eyes start working in Insurrection?
Indeed they did!
This is very controversial, because there is that movie where the Klingons can see perfectly fine, thru the Visor to see the shield frequency. :(
Well in a deleted scene and in the Novelization of the movie it's stated that the Klingons added a camera in to the Visor... But of course, canon doesnt even suggest that!
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios yeah, super suspicious :p but well, I guess we need to take the deleted scene into account then, like, they knew what they were doing then.
I think its more of how the raw data is sent and interpreted by the brain that prevents the visor the ability to send a 'clear' image to the user. If it did send a picture you wouldn't be able to interpret it in your mind
Armchair speculation, but anyway... I rationalized it as the device is capable of perceiving data beyond what normal rods and cones do, and therefore what the device feeds into his brain is beyond the spectrum that normal human biology can detect and interpret. In a few episodes the VISOR served to relay information fairly similar to what heat vision, night vision, or ground-penetrating radar displays. For whatever reason, probably because the writers wanted to have the plot device of making Geordi wish to be like his crewmates, I assumed it was within the VISOR's capability to provide a normal video feed, but it was to Geordi's advantage to see things others simply could not. Following that train of thought Geordi wished the VISOR away to both take away an obvious visual cue that he was different and to alleviate side effects like headaches. In any event, I have no difficulty believing that no matter how well-intentioned the designer of Geordi's device, they would commit an oversight such as omitting a standard camera feed, caught up in the idea that what the device could offer was for all intents superhuman and therefore superior in all situations.
Of his brain never connect nerves to his eyes when he was a child and they gave him the implants then that means maybe they are just using really dance connects that are implanted into his brain and then let his brain try and auto interpret the data. Only problem is if it's like what we current would do is hoping we get good connections the brain can interpret. So if for say the brain started noticing different signals given by the camera instead of the visual only data his brain would adapt for that data by change. Simple put the process of implanting and them hoping for right connects is like the only thing they can do without full understanding of the brain. So he might of started interpreting the signals wrong and so the only way to give him sight he can use would be to adapt the output to give him a full view of the signals he did figure out to interpret. Just meaning he sees differently just because of random chance.
I have to point out a few things for those of you who are sited and think this is a stupid technology. Your eyes do not see anything but rather your brain interprets what you see. In the case of the visor in Discovery and TNG which appear to be somewhat similar devices, it makes sense for them to not have what a sited person would consider photo realistic view. Think about it, you can see in the dark, hazards that the naked eye cannot see, and interpret the world in terms of a spectrum rather than the narrow bands we see. This make perfect sense that sensor data is interpreted by the implants in the brain on a much more effective spectrum than just normal eye site. Even once Geordi had the visor removed and implants put in, he could not see like normal sited folks and could see into the spectrum. Do not forget Data has an augmented lense that obscures his view of reality according to the technical sources. This is done to enhance their capabilities beyond our normal vision and is much more effective than BS, I want their vision to be like ours. To see certain phenomena without a tricorder could be very useful. And who amongst you would not want this type of vision to be available to those in the blind community that would love to have an ability to see only to see them enhance their vision.
A golden banana hair clip is all I'll ever be able to see, sorry.
And the later in first contact took the visor off.
Its certainly problematic to be sure! I cant remember if it were ever explained why Gordie was blind in the first place, perhaps even in the 24th century it is nit possible to correct the problem in his brain he has, though in one episode he says that the VISOR is painful for him obviously pain relief has not progressed either in 400 years Haha
I always imagined it was more of a neurological calibration issue… that they couldn’t tune it to show Geordi normal colour because his brain didn’t know what normal colour was. Someone blind since birth can’t really say “yeah, the reds are looking red now, blues are oversaturated though”. The VISOR definitely could pick up and focus on the narrower spectral slice we call visible light, Generations showed it doing exactly that, much to the Enterprise’s detriment.
Except that wouldnt explain why heat spectrum was shown as we would see it a scanner, or how Geordi was able to describe exactly what Picard (and the Audience) was seeing!
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios well there’s no guarantee the view screen was reproducing colour particularly accurately, Geordi didn’t go into precise terminology about the exact hue and saturation of things. Have you ever seen how NTSC shows got converted to PAL in analogue TV days? It was a particularly difficult conversation to do well, so while watchable (I grew addicted to Trek on PAL) colours always looked kinda wrong and oversaturated. The reds of the TNG uniforms could be downright magenta sometimes. And TNG was one of the better shows, that was being shown 3 years behind… NTSC news coverage was so hastily done that your news anchors often looked greener than a blushing Vulcan 😂
So I always imagined the VISOR to have roughly similar shortcomings… or maybe be kinda like the poor colour reproduction of a very cheap/old display. Geordi could probably get a rough idea of what the “visible” EM spectrum would look like, but it would be a poor substitute for real life organic vision without the kind of fine grained colour calibration you need working eyes to properly verify. Until Blu Ray, whenever Geordi talked about wanting to see colours in a natural way there was a good chance I was watching him take orders from a hot pink Picard/Riker, so it made total sense in my head 😁 even now, if you look at a screenshot of your desktop on your phone (or vice versa), or the same photo on both, you’ll see slightly different colour reproduction, the same thing applies to the displays of a thermal scanner.
Geordi has said it just gives his brain Data, er..., information that he had to learn to interpret. Maybe it can , and does, show an average human visual range spectrum image amongst everything else, he just never learned to "flex his cybermuscle" that way. To mentally choose to see "normal". Probably to caught up on "women don't like the poor blind boy" mentality that it was a crutch he needed [to not see"normally"].
That and it was just a poorly thought out plot devise.
Discovery had a mostly cybernetic person who could see like every one else bout'a 100 years earlier so... they had the technology, they could rebuild him...
The visor has a bent tooth in the thumbnail. How is that not messing with him?...
LOL
ok so, lot of speculation here.
Geordi was born blind, so in his early years his brain never developed the connections to process visual data in the same way we do. Our brains do a LOT of processing of the raw visual input from our eyes. It fills in data where there is none, smooths out rough spots, etc.
It's like when a child is raised without learning a language, by the time they're grown, that part of their brain hasn't developed.
so the visor may well be able to operate as a camera, but for whatever reason Geordi didn't develop the ability to work with that basic visual spectrum. Now we don't know precisely the nature of Geordi's blindness. Whether it was an eye or brain defect. This can make all the difference in the world on how he's able to process visual input. It might be using an entirely different part of his brain that he's trained to work with what the visor provides.
TL;DR the Visor can work as a camera just fine, but Geordi's specific situation may prevent that functionality from being of any use to him.
That explains a whole lot. Basically, something won't work, if it was never used.
What really bothers me is the ridiculous notion that anyone would play poker with a dude who can see through the cards, and chick who can read your mind, a machine who can count cards, a violent alien who has to control his temper, and your superior officer?
P.S. If money no longer exists, what are they playing for?
Oh come on James! What kind of "true" Star Trek fan doesnt know that they were playing for the highly sought after plastic discs and the shaving off of ones beard! ;) :P
Perhaps the visual cortex of his brain was defective, so the visor hooks into other areas of the brain to provide a synthesis of sight, but therefore cannot use the normal visual spectrum because it cannot be processed in the usual way.
That doesnt work either on many levels, as we're told in S2 that Pulaski could replace the visor and he could see normally, and First Contact shows us that Occular implants can see a normal picture just fine!
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios Pulaski's options were not without downsides/risks. It's possible between Season 2 and First Contact medical science advanced to mitigate those outcomes.
Plus, I think Geordi's guilt over his VISOR being used to give the Duras sisters and advantage was the push he needed to finally take the chance. Non-canonical, I know, but with a bit of stardust it makes a lot of sense.
Well given that we saw a Visor in S2 E1 of DSC, means the technology was around for over a century, so the idea that Medical Science would suddenly jump between S2 and FC is a little out there, though entirely possible.
And I too think it was guilt that made Geordi get the implants, but the OP posted "Perhaps the visual cortex of his brain was defective" which if it were, a) we'd hear about it sometime in the series and b) The same problem would exist with Occular Implants, and it does not!
Best explanation I could think of, so grains of salt and all. But I always took the 'live feed' as the computer on the Enterprise doing its best to interpret the synthetic neural signals the visor provided to a human brain. Since its a digital computer its doing its best to translate them into something that can be shown on a screen. I always would just assume he could see as we see, maybe delayed or otherwise not as perfect, but also could see in other spectrum as well.
Yeah that doesnt really work, as it's explained that it is the same signal as Geordi sees. Meaning the device is transmitting the same signal to the Enterprise! :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios Sure, same signal, but one would be a biological signal, the other having to be interpreted by a digital computer, mostly just head cannon for me to make sence of it all
I understand completely for the need to explain this illogical point, but that is the point of the video, that it Doesn't Make Sense... It's really no different then a Web Camera transmitting a picture to different computers... And again we know the Computer isnt actually transmitting a different interpreted image as Geordi describes exactly what he sees to Picard and it's the same thing we see on screen :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios Agreed, does not make a lick of sense, if Data could have vision, Geordi could as well. I only remember seeing one off other visors here and there, so it would not seem to be a common thing in the universe, and I cant imagine he was the only blind person out there.
I think it does make sense in the context of the writing and science of the late 80s and early 90s. But I'll say that even with current trends in the technology that more than likely such a device wouldn't bother trying to make images for the brain which map to sighted people's perceptions because here in this context I believe Geordi was born blind and therefore his brain being exposed to sight at an older age would require him to train with the device more than a sighted person. So in theory, even if the visor could produce analogous imagery to human sight Geordi's visual cortex might not have the ability to parse it normally. So you could say the visor pulls back a bit with the data to give him enough feedback that he can, with special training, be able to make sense of the data given to him. So maybe the example of the in-series images (both in the series and in Generations) might not be good comparisons that are analogous to what he really receives.
Also, I think the concept of the requirement of special training with the visor would also explain why most sighted people in universe wouldn't normally request the implantation.
Agreed lol
Geordi see in reading rainbow 🌈
As far why everyone doesn't have one, I imaging its a fairly invasive surgery that involves fiddling with a persons brain. In Geordi's case, there was good reason to do so. But on an elective basis I would think people would not be running out and getting extra parts attached. There is also the "prohibition" in Star Trek about augmenting or enhancing people due to the fallout of the Eugenics Wars. Many in the ST:TNG universe may think of this the same way.
That being said, the visor could be an invaluable tool in engineering or troubleshooting systems and components. And based on the clip you used in this video, it can be displayed for a normal person to see. It seems that that would be a more useful application than to just give a few blind people sight.
I think it does make sense only because Geordi is offered other alternatives throughout the series, but turns them down since they couldn't scan as diverse a range as the Visor. As one option out of who knows how many, it does make sense.
He turned other options down because those options might not work, and that once the procedure was done, he wouldnt be able to go back if it didnt work!
The Visor never made sense!!! Also when he healed in Insurrection it should have stayed that way.
Those are some interesting points, honestly. I have a question about whether he was born blind or if he lost his sight for some reason, I can not remember. If he was born that way, and that he always had the visor, than normal vision becomes relative. What we see is what our brain interprets, but we never actually know what he sees when the visor inputs data. We see what the visor is displaying, but what does La Forge's brain actually "see". It's kinda like how some people that are blind have learned how to click their tongues and listen for the echo to determine distances and rough size and shape of objects. People with sight would probably have a much harder time learning that. Similar with the VISOR, Geordi wore it all his life, until the implants, meaning his brain must have adapted to the sensory input for the wide array of spectra. Although, most importantly, plot points and story progressing over ride all of that
I think there was an episiode with Pulaski maybe? Where he was offered cybernetic sight via occular implats, but there was a chance they would not work. Something to do with the fact that no one was sure at the time *why* LaForge couldn't see. The visor itself seemed to be a one off and until it wasn't until the great invention of teasing Burton was invented by McFadden and Sirtis resulting of the breakingof the visor just prior to the begining of filming for Fist Contact that Star Fleet had the tech to build LaForge eyes.
Im sorry Gabby but you're incorrect about "the fact that no one was sure at the time why LaForge couldn't see" that is never stated in any episode. In the Pulaski episode Geordi declined based on his belief that the technology was not yet advanced enough to afford the same visual range as a visor, and if he had the procedure and it didnt work, that there was no going back!
Second, where did you get the idea that in First Contact the Visor broke so they gave him eyes? Ive never seen or read that anywhere. I believe this might be a fan myth, so if you could relay your source Id appreciate it :) Thank you :)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios It was Crusher, S1 E1, who suggested exploratory surgery to desensitize parts of the brain, Pulaski offered an experimental surgery to replaces the his eyes with cybernetic implants in S2 E5. She stated it had only been done twice before, and there were no guarantees of success and no going back.
Between the those two I always assumed the exact nature of LaForge's disability was rare enough that no one really understood what was wrong, how exactly the visor interfaced, hence the need for exploratory surgery.
We do see a visor in DISCO S2 E1, but it was a much bulkier construction, and we see cybernetic eyes in the same time line, which suggests that there are some biological requirements for the cybernetic eyes.
As to thw breaking of the visor, guess I could see McFadden and Sirtis teasing Burton and accidentally breaking it, so I believed it.
Well yes, Crusher said what she said due to Geordi's Headaches, and Pulaski said that SHE had only done it twice. Meaning, we dont know if other had done it as well. Neither of which support your original comment of "Something to do with the fact that no one was sure at the time why LaForge couldn't see..." I completely get the confusion though, and the assumptions you made as a result, but the truth is, that's all they were, assumptions, that sadly were not correct.
And if you do ever come across a source for the FC comment, Id love to see it to be able to include it in my future FC Historical Overview :) Thank you so much for the comments! :) Keep Trekkin' :)
I always figured the limitation had more to do with Geordi’s specific biology - that it precluded using something as simple as a “camera.”
Between his brain and optical nerves he just didn’t have the facility to use a prosthetic that would do that job, hence the weirdness of the visor.
I guess thats the Visor is indeed a) a scanner and not a camera and b) and electric device. The problem in this would be to translate this data into a human mind understandable input. Consciousness makes Morse code readable non the less it's just beebing and silence our ears hear. Our ears don't hear an A an O or an P but our brain regocnizes the patterns, that cobbles this together as a word or sentence. As Geordy said a person needs to learn to interpret the data from the visor. Even if we could simply connect a camera to a brain it wouldn't give much more than electric signals that out brain wouldn't understand unless somebody exactly and mc guffinly now how to code the electric signal to ones visual nervous system in the right codec to let it not have any difference. The signal would have be to be the same energy signal as our eye does. And this for every nuance of light, dark and colors. But the Visor don't seem to connect to the same parts as an eye does.
You also got to remember how long he's had the VISOR as well, this isn't 2360's tech [the era when TNG takes place] this is late 2340''s tech so it isn't perfect. Like a computer, in this case, the brain extrapolates the data being seen. Think of the VISOR like a pair of glasses a focus point where Geordi can look around him and see in different spectrums that normal human eyes can't. He had been offered the early versions of the implants in the 5th season of the show, he declined them because for one he didn't trust the technology then. But, by Generations, the tech had progressed enough that he wouldn't lose everything that the VISOR had done prior. In beta cannon, there is a book in the TNG era that focuses on the VISOR and Geordi. You think it's in the past, but it's actually him mulling over getting the implants in the 2360s and what it could give him. Though in 2370, when the movie era takes place after Generations. He has the implants because the tech has progressed to a point where he loses nothing that his VISOR didn't already give him.
I always assumed that there was a standard issue civilian model of the VISOR and he received an engineering specific model when enlisting. It would be handy to have 75% of the capabilities of a tricorder with both hands free.
Im sorry, but theres no evidence in canon to support the idea of different models... In fact quite the opposite is Canon. As in multiple episodes we see Geordi pining to see like Humans do, so if he could just switch the model, he wouldnt be pining for it.
Genetic enhanced super humans were outlawed due to eugenics wars but it seems that a loophole was advanced cybernetics, especially if it could be argued as a replacement for a birth defect.
What Geordi sees through is visor IS a normal picture, to him. Geordi was born blind, he has no concept of what a normal picture should look like. If a camera was wired into his VISOR and showed him a photorealistic picture he would probably think it was weird looking and focused too much on the 300-800 nm EM range.
This also explains why other people don't use a VISOR. It's probably a lot easier for a blind person to make use of superhuman vision than a not blind person. It's like learning a new language for a young child versus an adult
The question here isnt what Geordi sees as normal. Besides, we know he doesnt see it as normal, because in episodes like The Naked Now and Hide and Q, along with the Movie Insurrection, he pines for the ability to see normally! So if he thought his vision was normal, he wouldnt pine!
The reason Geordi's visor doesn't work like a picture is because his visual neurons are malformed and don't process like everyone else's. I believe there was an episode that explained this.
There was/ is no episode that said that, at least not in the connection that you think it might... Do you know what episode you're referring too, or other stuff about the episode so we can check out exactly what he says?
80s technology.nthey didn't think you could have a photo realistic image displayed digitally in real time. Blocky was cutting edge at the time and us kids thought it was cool looking and futuristic.
Geordi was never able to see through normal eyes... so, when he got the visor he must have learned to see, to interpret signals he got. Therefore, what he sees is normal for him and it in much wider spectra region. It is only natural that the output looks strangely for us.
I think the connection to brain is something akin to what the Neuralink should be.
BTW, I have seen some articles where they presented EEG translated into images. What the experimentee imagined was visible on screen... it looked vague...
I think it may have something to do with the way HIS brain works. How HE chooses to see things and someone in connection with the visor….if that makes sense.
Not really, no :P
No? Oh okay. Lol. New to Star Trek. Just started watching first season.👍😁
All good, and enjoy! :)
Considering Geordie was born with out normal site the brain would have as much trouble interpreting the data. if normal visual information was given him but the the device should have been able to be upgraded to eventually providing a normal picture.
Except we see in First Contact, his brain IS able to interpret the data normally using his Occular Implants ;)
@@TriAngulumAudioStudios you beat to it. I was about to say the same thing.😂
No more than reading rainbow.....Gene would have gone with a seeing eye dragon for Gordi but that would not have worked on the enterprise.
Does not make sense to me...unless he can see through women’s clothes with it😇
LOL, Im not sure, might be canon though :P
Geordi must have had a HUGE file at Starfleet HR department.
@@TheHeroRises
😂personally I would be staring at Counselor Troi...a lot
@@TheHeroRises I’m betting HR was quite familiar with Mr. LaForge after Dr. Braum’s holo-stalking charges… and probably other creeped out Enterprise crew members 😆
If i recall a card game right he can see though the right kind of poker cards so it really shouldn't be to much of a leap to say some fabrics would have the same problem.
What we see is the result of our brain interpreting the input it receives from our eyes. What that episodes puts on the viewscreen is not what Geordie sees, it's the input his brain receives from the visor, before it does interpreting.
I think this analogous video- and picture files on computers. At their fundamental level those files are long sequences of ones and zeros - like all computer files. To read those as a video or picture a codec is used. Now if you open a file using the wrong codec you get meaningless gibberish, that is impossible to interpret. Take a picture file, change the ending from jpeg to pdf and try to open it in a pdf reader. In my opinion that's essentially what the Enterprise-crew did, when they sent Geordie's visor data to the viewscreen on the bridge. The proper codec to make sense of the input exists in Geordie's brain and nowhere else.
However: Generations kind of broke that interpretation, because when the Lursa and B'Etor used Geordie's visor to spy on the Enterprise, they got perfectly normal pictures... Well, I guess that's Star Trek's 47,238,129,281th inconsistency.
Where the Klingons in Generations using his visor to see the shield frequency? That seemed like a normal picture, maybe he has various modes or something.
No, they had hidden a camera in the Visor!
I feel like the transporter should have noticed that, shouldn’t have let O’Brien go
LOL and yet, somehow, it didnt! Maybe a topic for a future episode ;)
I say the connection between the visor and this organic interface isn't perfect... technology to technology interface is different! good as it can get... good enough for me unless we can do it in real life! lol
The idea of Geordi's visor was a woman's headgear that someone tried on and it slipped down to bridge of their nose.