Aperture Science Security Camera

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Aperture Science Security Camera
General information
Affiliation	Aperture Science
Type	Security camera
Usage
Used by	GLaDOS
Game information
Entity / spawn codes	npc_security_camera
Designer(s)	Scott Klintworth

 

 

"To ensure the safe performance of all authorized activities, do not destroy vital testing apparatus."

―GLaDOS

 

Security Cameras are used by GLaDOS throughout the test chambers in the Enrichment Center as a way of monitoring the test subjects.

Overview

• Placing a linked portal underneath a camera will cause it to be detached, followed by a warning (only in Portal) from GLaDOS, in which she refers to the camera as "testing apparatus."

• The cameras can rotate 360 degrees, and they follow the players' movements within Test Chambers.

• As well as its main video camera, the security camera appears to have a small device attached on the side, which possibly monitors infrared radiation from the body heat of living creatures.

• Not a single security camera is featured in any of the maintenance areas or observation rooms of Aperture Laboratories, and it is therefore unknown how, or even whether, GLaDOS can monitor Chell's movements during her escape in Portal. Her calls through the Speaker System do not strongly connote that she is able to monitor the escapee. It is possible, however, the speakers also have microphones, so she can hear footsteps and use information of the microphone's location and loudness of the footsteps to determine where Chell is.

• As seen on ApertureScience.com, the image of the security camera feed is green, despite its lens being red.

• One of the unknown Aperture Science employees in Portal 2: Lab Rat states that the cameras, in fact, contain cameras inside them (although this statement may have been a paranoid delusion of Doug).

• GLaDOS states during the Cooperative Campaign "Did you know we originally used these cameras to capture moments of intense pain and agony in test subjects? If the subject survived the test, we let them purchase the pictures for $5. If the subject died, we gave the photo to their next of kin free of charge. The photos weren't as popular as we had hoped, so we repurposed the cameras." Whether this is truthful or meant to initiate an emotion of fear in the player is unknown.

Behind the scenes

As seen in an early Portal screenshot, a security camera model from Counter-Strike: Source was used during development as a placeholder to the final model.

Trivia

• Several detached security cameras can be found in Rattmann Dens, along with the message "She's watching you."

• An Orange Box Achievement, "Camera Shy," requires the player to detach all security cameras from the walls. This is only possible with security cameras attached on concrete walls (thus disregarding those fixed into metal) and not before the ASHPD has been acquired. There are 33 total.

• In Portal 2, it is possible to see the old security camera model from Portal being used to scan and check the Aperture Science Sentry Turrets (to see whether the turrets are defective or not) in Chapter 5: The Escape.

• Just like GLaDOS herself, the security cameras are reminiscent of HAL 9000, the murderous AI computer of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Gallery

• 

  Security cameras as seen in Portal.

• 

  Early Relaxation Vault in Test Chamber 00, with placeholder Half-Life 2 props, and a Counter-Strike: Source placeholder security camera above the rounded door.

• 

  Counter-Strike: Source security camera model.

• 

  Ratman graffiti seen in Ratman Dens and maintenance areas of the Aperture Laboratories, with the sentence "She's watching you" referring to GLaDOS watching Test Subjects through the security cameras.

• 

  "Camera Shy" icon.

• 

  Test chamber 00's Relaxation Vault seen through a security camera, along with a hacker message, as seen on ApertureScience.com.

• 

  Security Camerawelded to a Aperture Science Multitasking Arm.

List of appearances

• ApertureScience.com (First appearance)
• Portal
• Portal: First Slice
• Portal: Still Alive (Non-canonical appearance)
• Portal 2
• The Final Hours of Portal 2
• Peer Review

References