vehicle smuggling
Culture and Sports / Society

Inhabitants of Beyond Coast who are not satisfied with the lower level of speed offered by electric engine vehicles will sometimes smuggle in fossil fuel internal combustion engine vehicles, which are prohibited on space colonies, from Earth. However, smuggling a fully assembled vehicle into a colony is not easy, so the smuggler will usually disassemble it and transport the parts separately. The high price of black market gasoline on colonies also poses a problem for smugglers.

videophone
Culture and Sports / Information and Communications / Society / Technology

An information platform based on the videophones of the 20th century. Modern videophones also allow the user to turn off the video feature if they want, and it is possible to send still picture- and text-only messages as well. Videophones started to become widespread at the beginning of the century, but with privacy concerns and changes in communications practices, nearly all calls have now become either voice- or text-only, with video calls common only between close friends and family members. The decline of the video feature could be cited as one of the effects of the information explosion that occurred shortly after the turn of the century. Home versions are usually integrated into an information terminal as standard. Public videophone terminals are frequently the targets of vandalism, many having their cameras broken, with the result that governments have decided not to install cameras on all future terminals. Today's videophone differs from previous videophones in that the visual output is reduced in size to allow for faster processing, and it frequently employs burst lines, which codify communications to prevent eavesdropping.

viroid S
Life Science

The smallest known pathogen, composed solely of a single strand of RNA, which invades plant cells and can cause disease. Containing no protein structures, viroids infect mainly agricultural plants, with this viroid only infecting Papaveraceae, or the poppy family. It spread throughout Beyond Coast in 2035, wiping out all poppy cultivation. It has never been reported on Earth, which has led some to speculate it is a mutated version of an Earth viroid. Called viroid S because its structure resembles the letter S of the Roman alphabet.

vital reaction
Life Science

If an injury noted on a corpse, such as bleeding or rupture of epidermal tissue, occurred before death, this will be reflected in the quality of the injury. This evidence is called a vital reaction, and is used to determine if a body was tampered with after death.

Von Braun
Outer Space / Technology

A military EMPS prototype developed over the last 5 years by Tokugawa Heavy Industries. Named after Dr. Wernher von Braun, regarded as the father of America's space program. It is equipped with a 40mm grenade launcher as well as a computer system that suppresses and absorbs recoil when it is fired. The chest, the Goddard's weak point, is reinforced with additional Chobham armor, as per its planned military use.

VR girl
Culture and Sports / Information and Communications / Society

Slang for an actress who appears in pornographic PVR software. Although VR girls are considered different from regular actresses, they have become just as common as their traditional counterparts. The monthly software product Girls Mate, which features VR girls, averages 100,000 downloads an issue. Since a VR girl is created from CG captured from a real woman, they have necessitated the rethinking of current copyright and likeness laws. Questions have been raised regarding how far a person or object processed with CG should be afforded protection, as well as the creation of new CG copyright laws concerning the right to conduct CG processing. However, the total number of problems raised by the existence of VR girls extends far beyond merely ethical issues.

VR pornography
Culture and Sports / Information and Communications / Society

A virtual reality program featuring adult content. One of the darker sides of the VR experience, this type of entertainment has fast become a major problem, going against the Virtual Reality Ethical Guidelines. Users value its interactivity more than the amount of nudity it contains.

VRE
Information and Communications / Society / Technology

Acronym for virtual recorder. A media system that recreates a location in 3D by simultaneously recording video, sound, and environment data from various sensors, then analyzing and compiling the data via computer. Originally used in planetary exploration and scouting for mineral deposits. The data, recorded on separate sub-devices, is linked piece by piece on a special workstation and supplemented as necessary. This is called virtual processing, and the machine used for this is called a virtual editor. Going beyond simply recording 2D images, it simulates a location in perfect 3D, including air temperature and humidity, smells – even the exact materials the actual objects are made of. However, virtual processing requires a considerable amount of time even with the speed of computers available today.

BBC has several virtual editors at its studios.