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Do you think Telekinesis can operate a smart phone screen? Will it recognize "touches" from TK? What about Ectoplasm? Or the Remote Manipulation spell?

Most phone touch screens are EM reactive with flesh. (at least that is how I understand it, since some people in cold climes use little sausages as styluses when it is cold and they have gloved/mittened hands.)

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:Most phone touch screens are EM reactive with flesh. (at least that is how I understand it, since some people in cold climes use little sausages as styluses when it is cold and they have gloved/mittened hands.)

I agree with drew, the silver thread tips on gloves are unreliable and a little itchy

I don't think TK or Ectoplasm has the em field to activate the touch screen and the manipulate object spell can't do that fine of action. I don't know the remote manipulation spell.

I'd allow ectoplasm to work in this regard. That power always seemed to me like a "poor man's" telekinesis and I like the idea that this gives it something useful.

Mark Hall wrote:Do you think Telekinesis can operate a smart phone screen? Will it recognize "touches" from TK? What about Ectoplasm? Or the Remote Manipulation spell?

Up to the GM, but I'd say No.
TK let's you move objects, not touch them.

I would allow (and see) Ectoplasm being able to operate touch panels since it is a physical object. Though it really depends on what type of touch interface the device is using, however 2 out of 3 types Ectoplasm should be fine without question in solid form it's the other 1 out of 3 since it requires a conductive object (gm's call if solid form ectoplasm qualifies).

TKing objects will work 2/3 times though, 3/3 if it's conductive. But TK itself may not offer fine enough control (though the Mechanoids and Vernulians both use TK operated devices so it should be possible to make it reactive to TK).

If I were to use TK to use a severed finger to operate this touch-screen smart phone, how long would this remain viable before the finger's loss of biological activity would compromise the EMFs enough to prevent it from making the touch-screen react to the magnetism?

Tor wrote:If I were to use TK to use a severed finger to operate this touch-screen smart phone, how long would this remain viable before the finger's loss of biological activity would compromise the EMFs enough to prevent it from making the touch-screen react to the magnetism?

It depends on the type of touch interface used. There are 3 types that I'm aware of and 2 of them would not be effected by the severed finger's EMF capacity. The 3rd option shouldn't be effected w/reasonable time frames either given Galvani's frog leg experiments that had electricity trigger the muscles in a dead frog.

Killer Cyborg wrote:Up to the GM, ....snip

I agree with the above.

If the touch pad is activated by a force meter, analogous with most microwave control panels, then TK could be used to interact with the tablet. But not with an EM reactive switch, which would take electro-kinesis to interact with.

Ectoplasm.....humm......unless it is charged with an EM field somehow it would, in my opinion, follow the same basic limitations as TK.

actually it's not reading the EM of the finger.. it literally measures pressure.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question716.htm
basically the 'glass' of the digitizer part is a sandwich of conductive and resistive elements, and when you touch the screen, the elements connect, creating signals the computer can use to pinpoint the location.
the exact way depends on which of the three sensor schemes is being used.