8.2 Operation

During voice operations, the normal operating procedure involves a crewmember stating his\her\its name, plus the party or ship being called, hopefully in the proper form for computer recognition. Examples: "Strife to Engineering, I need more power!" or "Tamil to Security." The artificial intelligence routines in the computer cores listen for intraship calls, perform analysis on the message content, attempt to locate the recipient and then activate the audio speakers at the proper location.

During initial message routing, there may be a tiny processing delay until the comp has heard the entire name of the recipient, and located said person. From that point on, everything is real-time. When both parties are done with the conversation, the channel may be actively closed with the words 'out', or 'done', within context as determined by the computer. If no conversation is continued, the computer will listen for five seconds, and then shut down the line. When using the communicator, the computer assumes the badge-tap to be force of habit or confirmatory signal only.

In the event that the recipient is unavailable for a routine voice call, a system flag will be set in the computer memory and alert the person that a waiting message has been stored. Emergency voice transmissions are prioritized and controlled by command authority instructions within the computer, and can be redefined by authorized personnel as the need arises.

During most Alert conditions, the communications system is automatically switched over to operations optimized to keep the bridge in contact with other sections of the ships. Routine channel operations at this time are then disabled.

Data transmissions may be established between any standard Starfleet hardware units equipped with RF, STA or OL devices, either by manual keyboarding or by vocally commanding the computer to handle the transfers. In most cases, the computer will automatically execute the desired functions; on occasion, the comp may request identification for specific pieces of hardware, data transmission protocols or sequencing of multiple devices. This process usually entails iris scan, voice ID or DNA scan.