Talking Lightbulb: While it’s not always one of these, most people wearing all-concealing environment suits, etc., or using off-the-rack bodies with non-unique synthesized voices generally do have some sort of “I’m speaking now” indicator on the outside, if only so that people can tell who’s talking when they’re in a group.
vacuum suits
Building the Spacesuit of the Future
For astronauts flying in space, spacesuits are a must-have accessory. But spacesuit technology has come a long way since the dawn of human spaceflight. Tonight, MIT professor Dava Newman will discuss her BioSuit spacesuit design and you can watch it live online.
http://www.space.com/25885-biosuit-spacesuit-tech-design-webcast.html
This may well be of relevance to Eldraeverse readers – as well as space enthusiasts in general – because as it happens, this is the proposed spacesuit design that I modeled the Eldraeverse’s standard vacuum suits off of.
Trope-a-Day: The Faceless
The Faceless: Lots of people who, for one reason or another, need to go around all day wearing environmental/vacuum suits for one reason or another. (Although facial-expression v-tags are quite common to reduce the effect of appearing to have no expression.)
Also, more than a few infomorphs who are not only faceless, but also bodiless. Although keeping communicating in this way, special circumstances aside, betrays either an appalling lack of grasp on biosapience psychology, or else just plain rudeness.
Trope-a-Day: Can Breathe In Space
Can Breathe In Space: Technically, you can do this by using a vector-control “envelope” to hold air in around you (although you will still need some means of replenishing it if you plan to do this for long, special provisions like oxygen-carrying hemocules aside). While useful to avoid ebullism and other pressure/temperature syndromes if you should find yourself in a decompressing compartment, needing to leap from airlock to airlock, etc., and it’s a lovely showy party piece… most people still prefer actual vacuum suits if they plan on stepping outside.