Manual override

A manual override is a mechanism wherein control is taken from an automated system and given to the user. For example, a manual override in photography refers to the ability for the human photographer to turn off the automatic aperture sizing, automatic focusing, or any other automated system on the camera.

Some manual overrides can be used to veto an automated system's judgement when the system is in error. An example of this is a printer's ink level detection: in one case, a researcher found that when he overrode the system, he could print up to 38% more pages at good quality from his printer than the automated system would have allowed him to..

Examples in fiction

As a plot device manual override is often used in Sci-Fi because of the usual prevalence of advanced / electronic technology. For example;

• In Star Trek many automatic systems, such as the automatic navigation, or the 'site-to-site transporter' can be overridden. A slightly different type of manual override is used in the film Star Trek: Insurrection, when acting Captain of the Starship Enterprise (E) William Riker asks the computer for the 'manual command column', in effect a joystick which gives him pilotage control of the ship.
• In Casino Royale (2006), a villan overrides the emergency fire sprinklers at Miami airport and starts a distraction so that he can blow up a plane with a remote-controlled pipe bomb.