How does a scouter detect power levels?

Bardock the Mexican · Post by **Bardock the Mexican** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:41 pm

One thing I can't stop thinking about is how the scouters used by Furiza and his men work. I want to think that the scouter uses a crystal to detect the changes in one's bioelectonic field which is influenced by the individual's strength. I can't imagine how somthing like this can work even in the fantasy world of Dragonball. Is there anyone who can give me a straight answer to my question? I guess maybe there are some things that we will never have a canon answer to. Just mere speculation to explain it.

Deus ex Machina · Post by **Deus ex Machina** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:59 pm

I'm not certain on this, but I think the scouter also bases its reading on the subjects body, measuring things like height, weight, muscle size, lung capacity, etc.

Duo · Post by **Duo** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:07 am

All it does is measure the subjects Chi level and the relative location of that Chi. It's probably designed to pick up on the unique wave signiture of Chi and put it in numbers, is all. IF too many of these waves enter the unit, however...well, remember Kaio-ken x3? Of course, some scouters can handle more...for some reason.

Just my thoughts. What I do know is it doesn't measure your body stats. Just your Chi.

Deus ex Machina · Post by **Deus ex Machina** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:12 am

Actually I retract what I said, I think I confused the scouter with a similar scene from the Street Fighter 2 anime, where a cyborg did a very scouter like analysis of a fighter. Chalk that one up to not having seen anything before the android saga in years.

Eclipse · Post by **Eclipse** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:16 am

Duo wrote:IF too many of these waves enter the unit, however...well, remember Kaio-ken x3? Of course, some scouters can handle more...for some reason.

I think that's because the Saiyans, being Freeza's lapdogs, have the weaker versions of the scouters (cheap ones to manufacture). Freeza's, and more powerful characters under his rule probably had custom-made scouters for them.

Tsukento · Post by **Tsukento** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:04 am

Battle powers are basically estimates of a person's Ki level. Somewhat in the same sense of sensing one's Ki, it just basically observes the current amount of Ki flowing and presents it into an estimated level.

The faulty of the Scouters are that they cannot detect actual power when it's supressed.

t-bone135 · Post by **t-bone135** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:15 am

In the fantasy/sci-fi world of DB, I would have to say that someone just found a way to measure it. Just like we have developed instruments to help us put numbers to a heart beat or weight, Toriyama has "said" that in the world of DB they have found a way to use a device to translate ki into a numerical expression.

Bejiita · Post by **Bejiita** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:29 am

Tsukento wrote:Battle powers are basically estimates of a person's Ki level. Somewhat in the same sense of sensing one's Ki, it just basically observes the current amount of Ki flowing and presents it into an estimated level.

The faulty of the Scouters are that they cannot detect actual power when it's supressed.

That is not actually a fault, since one can only pick up power being given off anyway, even someone that senses ki cannot get an exact reading for one who is suppressing their power. Which is why Ginyu can only estimate what Goku's full power is, that's why characters' ability to 'bluff' about their actual reading happens a lot later during the series.

And as for the scouter exploding when a high number is picked up, that may be something else.

I think it's the speed at which the number is rising that causes it to explode. Notice that Zarbon and Dodoria's scouters are different colours, I think it's just to vary the colours, since Zarbon is green, a green scouter won't look as as good as the blue one, which he has, it is later discovered that the Ginyu Force have the latest models.

That's only what I think though.

As for scouter being able to read life forces, it's just the level of ki that is being read, so it must be able to sense the vibrations in the atmosphere, it has to be a logical way, different to the way a person can sense a ki without the scouter.

The brains of the aliens who created them is who is behind the technology, it seems even Bulma or her Father are unable to identify how they are made, this is the same as the Saiya-Jin spaceships, Briefs could only use the same engine, he could not re-create a new one from scratch, he had to use the ship's pieces.

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:30 pm

Bejiita wrote:I think it's the speed at which the number is rising that causes it to explode. Notice that Zarbon and Dodoria's scouters are different colours, I think it's just to vary the colours, since Zarbon is green, a green scouter won't look as as good as the blue one, which he has, it is later discovered that the Ginyu Force have the latest models.

I fully agree. According to the daizenshuu there are two models: one that reaches 22,000 and another that reaches 180,000. My guess is that normally a scouter would indicate "Over 22,000" and "Over 180,000," but the speed at which it increases is what really makes it explode (ie: increasing to fast to calculate). I always felt Zarbon and Dodoria had the Ginyu model of scouter, being Freeza's personal goons and all, but that Vegeta's PL increased too quickly.

I believe a scouter simply reads the amount of ki being generated by a body at the time of its scan. Therefore, if you've scanned someone at 800 and now they've increased their PL to 4,000, it'll simply rescan them.

Akira · Post by **Akira** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:29 pm

That's a good point, Goku was slower powering up for Ginyu, and Ginyu's scouter never blew up.

Dayspring · Post by **Dayspring** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 3:53 pm

Turns out it's a combination of our theories according to the daizenshuu. I had remembered incorrectly; There are actually three models.

1) The older model: Used by all Saiyans (including Radditz, Nappa and Vegeta) and Freeza's weaker soldiers. In terms of the anime, this model was quite litterally scouters used by the Tsufurus. It reaches up to 22,000 before exploding.

2) The newer model: Used by Freeza's elite warriors, like Dodoria for among others. It can scan further distances than the previous model, and can read power levels greater than 22,000. Past 22,000, however, it runs the risk of saturating and then exploding like the previous model does.

3) The latest model: Used by the Ginyu Force, this model is more efficiently designed for flying at high-speeds without the risk of damage. Unlike the previous models, it can read power levels up to 180,000 before running the risk of saturating and exploding.

Socar15 · Post by **Socar15** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 5:49 pm

I'm assuming there's a scouter somewhere somehow that can read PL's up to 530,000, otherwise I don't see how Freeza could know his own PL so exactly.

Watermelon · Post by **Watermelon** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 6:42 am

Heh. I forgot how Frieza's scouter was destroyed. Was it from his own powering up, or...

Socar15 · Post by **Socar15** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 6:56 am

Actually it got destroyed when he and Vegeta were locked in a grip and they were both powering up. Right before it did, Freeza is like "What?!". At least that's what I remember.

Pedro The Hutt · Post by **Pedro The Hutt** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:31 am

I'm pretty sure the scouters operate entirely on the power of Plot Device. =D

Xyex · Post by **Xyex** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 12:00 pm

I think it was filler, but it seems the strongest type are the 'planet based' systems. Like the one used to see the powers of SSJ Goku and 100% Freeza during their battle.

Socar15 · Post by **Socar15** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 3:41 pm

Xyex wrote:I think it was filler, but it seems the strongest type are the 'planet based' systems. Like the one used to see the powers of SSJ Goku and 100% Freeza during their battle.

Although it was indeed filler, that would make sense that the ones that could in theory read higher PL's would be more sophisticated equipment and would probably require larger computers than what the scouters could provide. I just kinda assume that considering Freeza did state that he and Ginyu were supposedly the strongest (Toriyama hadn't thought up King Cold by this time of course), detecting PL's higher than the hundred thousands simply wasn't something that was required.

Xyex · Post by **Xyex** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 4:35 pm

Well, while Freeza wouldn't think such a thing was needed for the purposes of tracking people equal to or stronger than him, since he thinks he's all superior to everyone, they could be used to look for people stronger than Ginyu. Or, for that matter, to scan the galaxy itself for inhabited worlds to conquer. I doubt they'd send soldiers out at random to find worlds that have a population and then determine their strength. A few dozen planet systems could scan the galay for worlds with out trouble. Long range of reach and no chance of exploding (since it took SSJ Goku and 100% Freeza to take out the one).

Socar15 · Post by **Socar15** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:09 pm

That's a good point. And even though that was based on a filler scene, that would actually explain how they knew that Earth's inhabitants would be weak enough so that it would be appropriate to send Kakarotto as a baby.

Tapion · Post by **Tapion** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 6:07 am

It detects ki "flares" of course, as stated above.
Similar to the way Bulma's Dragon-Radar was "tuned" to detect the unique energies of the Dragonballs, the scouters were tuned in the same way... When a ki flares up, the scouter gauges it.