Face masks and SF armour
Dec. 14th, 2024 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunsen_hOne of the things I find most irksome about wearing a face mask is that it impairs communication of emotion via facial expression.
It's a similar problem to that of costume design for things like space suits and body armour in SF visual media. It's important to have the actors' faces well-lit and visible from the outside, so the audience can see them. But realistically, practical protective gear for the face and head would have no illumination directed at one's face apart from the incidental lighting from in-helmet displays. Light on one's face is likely to cause internal reflections and impair one's vision, and that's more important than people around one being able to see one's face. A large area of transparent material is likely to provide less protection than the equivalent mass/thickness of other material, as well as leaving the occupant vulnerable to being blinded by bright light outside. (Assuming that there isn't something like Trek's "transparent aluminum", of course, but there's a plausibility gap there.)
But I've thought of a possible practical solution, for fiction at least. Have the helmet completely opaque, with the occupant seeing via displays, and have the occupant's facial expressions mirrored to the surface via display material. It could be simplified, something like a caricature; the occupant could make artistic choices regarding some of the details. When the occupant smiles or frowns, the helmet face "smiles" or "frowns", and so on. It's a feature that could be turned off or on, depending on the situation. In combat, one might not want the opponents to see one's "face". It could even be set up such that a person's helmet display generates "facial expressions" and overlays them on their views of their comrades, based on each person's helmet transmitting the expression data to all the others. From outside the armour, one sees blank heads; from inside, on the visual monitors, one would see faces. It would be a little bit tricky to convey to the audience, but not terribly hard, and it could be used to great visual effect if it were done right. On the command "faces off", everyone in the group is suddenly transformed from having expressive caricatures to having blank heads.
It's a similar problem to that of costume design for things like space suits and body armour in SF visual media. It's important to have the actors' faces well-lit and visible from the outside, so the audience can see them. But realistically, practical protective gear for the face and head would have no illumination directed at one's face apart from the incidental lighting from in-helmet displays. Light on one's face is likely to cause internal reflections and impair one's vision, and that's more important than people around one being able to see one's face. A large area of transparent material is likely to provide less protection than the equivalent mass/thickness of other material, as well as leaving the occupant vulnerable to being blinded by bright light outside. (Assuming that there isn't something like Trek's "transparent aluminum", of course, but there's a plausibility gap there.)
But I've thought of a possible practical solution, for fiction at least. Have the helmet completely opaque, with the occupant seeing via displays, and have the occupant's facial expressions mirrored to the surface via display material. It could be simplified, something like a caricature; the occupant could make artistic choices regarding some of the details. When the occupant smiles or frowns, the helmet face "smiles" or "frowns", and so on. It's a feature that could be turned off or on, depending on the situation. In combat, one might not want the opponents to see one's "face". It could even be set up such that a person's helmet display generates "facial expressions" and overlays them on their views of their comrades, based on each person's helmet transmitting the expression data to all the others. From outside the armour, one sees blank heads; from inside, on the visual monitors, one would see faces. It would be a little bit tricky to convey to the audience, but not terribly hard, and it could be used to great visual effect if it were done right. On the command "faces off", everyone in the group is suddenly transformed from having expressive caricatures to having blank heads.
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Date: 2024-12-14 06:59 pm (UTC)Zoom?
Date: 2024-12-14 10:29 pm (UTC)