I'm not all that keen on their prototype styling, but I could easily picture this on the AR-enabled streets of SR Seattle:

frogConcept: A Digital Escape

It's a concept design for partial face mask that replaces a wearer's senses with artificial overlays, relieving the unpleasantness of a dystopian world (the designer's ad copy reads as something straight from an AAA marketing dept.).

I could easily see it on the streets of 2071, receiving AR input and filtering out smog. Various fashion designs could be popular with masks depicting sim-star faces, shamanic masks, 6th world metahuman archetypes (for Orc or Elf poseurs), and maybe even critters (well, at least dragons).

And for 'Runners, a fashionable way to defeat facial recognition systems.

That is the freakiest thing I have ever seen. HardSix, the next line is NOT directed to you, it's directed to the company that makes this shit.


This mask is also, IMHO, insane and stupid. Really, if you don't like the world you're in, do something about it! Besides it looks REALLY dumb.

I Think this is a gag product. I hope this is a gag product.

And yes, this is essentially how most wage-slaves in SR get through the day. They simply have their AR edit out anything they don't want to see. There are no bums on the street corner, the sky is always rosy blue, and everything smells like roses. Why bother fixing the world for real?

im jumping between "me wants" and "WTF" here!

btw, frog design have put into image a lot of "blue sky" concepts over the years.

here is something they came up with for motorola when bluetooth was hot new tech:
http://www.frogdesign.com/case-study/motor...es-concept.html

In the 6th World I think AR editing of the environment would be the way most people would cope with the unpleasantness of it all. The city council doesn't need to pay for beautifying the neighbourhood or cleaning up graffiti, it just has an AR overlay generated which anyone looking around with AR can enjoy or appreciate. Even when hacker thrill gangs deface it, such things can be deleted and cleaned far more easily.

However, as far as transplanting this product into SR, it's not really required when you can use simsense to replace any or part or all of your sensorium. But don't despair about making your runner anonymous. with the smog and acid rain and occasional showers of ash (in Seattle at any rate - IIRC there's a sodding great volcano that has been recently active) Anyone in their right mind is going to be wearing goggles and facemasks and various other PPE, which will effectively negate any facial recognition attempts, even by your friends.

Hmmm.. Note to self, make players aware that this is the norm, and encourage them to purchase chemical sealed clothes and masks or just give them level one stuff as standard.

Oh yeah, I'm with you 100%. It's something I very highly doubt I'd ever wear (at least while sober), but the marketing speak/pitch for it seemed like something right out of classic cyberpunk. The typical wageslave/suburber would feel too powerless or depressed to attempt to change the world, so this would help him avoid those nasty stressors completely. It'd also probably be cheaper than AR-cyberware. Poseur transhumanists, 70's youth, and hipsters/clubsters would buy them as fashion and to assert their 'individuality' (even though the masks would be mass-produced by megacorps in specific styles for their target demographics - 'individuality', ha!).

But part of being a good Runner is the art of learning how not to be seen, so they'd be good public disguise.

Edit: Now I'm imagining kids running around with these things seeing the world as an AR-enhanced version of GTA 12 or something similar.

Just use a reality filter.

ARE, it's in the BBB.
And check out the intro video from Syndicate Wars (it should be on YouTube) to get an animated (but a little dated) version.

I'm going to need one of those to escape the horrifying reality of seeing other people wearing those things!
Dude looks like a Sith Lord. Oooh, or Plo Koon, the Kel Dor Jedi master! What? He does!

like that ARE game found in the BBB gear list? the one that supposedly have made some people jump in front of trains and similar?