While tempted to place this post under the Fiction topic, it does revolve around the concepts of a realistic environment. The issue that I would like to present, is the perception of sound for Spartans when they have a shield active. Considering that the shield is meant to encompass the entirety of a Spartan (Elite/Armor/etc.), would that not mean that sound has a hard time being heard by any person within the shield? The sound, much like other projectiles, would be deflected off of the overshield, and as such, never reach the eardrum of a Spartan. This means that, while the shields are active, everything would either sound muffled or completely dampened if it was not loud enough. Once the shield breaks momentarily, I would assume sound could be heard somewhat normally through the armor or through radio comms., but what would it mean otherwise? Also, would radio signals jam based on whether the shield was up or not? I suppose that we could assume that these work-arounds have been found, considering the time period in which the Halo universe takes place, but I still thought this would be an interesting discussion to have with a few other fans while we wait for the last day to go by before the Reach re-Release.
Filters and limiters exist in the real world that restrict how much sound or light gets through, and we also have noise-canceling technology that can filter out loud noises or constant background noise, while amplifying small sounds (they’re often used for target shooting to protect ears while allowing easy conversation without having to yell). All of this amounts to my assumption that Spartans don’t have any difficulty hearing anything, which is reinforced by mentions in the novels regarding how superb their hearing actually is.
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> Filters and limiters exist in the real world that restrict how much sound or light gets through, and we also have noise-canceling technology that can filter out loud noises or constant background noise, while amplifying small sounds (they’re often used for target shooting to protect ears while allowing easy conversation without having to yell). All of this amounts to my assumption that Spartans don’t have any difficulty hearing anything, which is reinforced by mentions in the novels regarding how superb their hearing actually is.
See, that would be my assumption for much of the theoretical. However, I also imagine that a shield either provided a semi-vacuum or fully-vacuumed environment, thus preventing certain sounds or frequencies from entering. Assuming that oxygen gets through for people using shield, however, must mean that there are areas of the shield that allow for a level of piercing on a small scale. Lots of questions come about from this, but I still think it’s a fun area to speculate.
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> > 2533274883501878;2:
> > Filters and limiters exist in the real world that restrict how much sound or light gets through, and we also have noise-canceling technology that can filter out loud noises or constant background noise, while amplifying small sounds (they’re often used for target shooting to protect ears while allowing easy conversation without having to yell). All of this amounts to my assumption that Spartans don’t have any difficulty hearing anything, which is reinforced by mentions in the novels regarding how superb their hearing actually is.
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> See, that would be my assumption for much of the theoretical. However, I also imagine that a shield either provided a semi-vacuum or fully-vacuumed environment, thus preventing certain sounds or frequencies from entering. Assuming that oxygen gets through for people using shield, however, must mean that there are areas of the shield that allow for a level of piercing on a small scale. Lots of questions come about from this, but I still think it’s a fun area to speculate.
It might be a bit like some of the personal shields in Star Gate SG1, or the Onyx Sentinels which were taken down by thrown rocks, in both cases the effectiveness of the shields is related to the velocity of what is coming at them. That would explain how relatively still air can get to them to replenish the suit’s supply, and why the suit needs other features to re-seal breaches if the Spartan is in space, rather than the shield just holding the air in.
This is actually a really good question to ask. I assume it would have something to do with tight beam carrier waves that would be powerful enough to send communications to and from the suit, but auditory sound? Outside of having powerful microphones that could push through the shielding and provide near accurate auditory feedback, I don’t see how it would be possible.
Imagine if that was the actual case, the sounds we’re hearing in-game would be twice as loud.
Not Halo related, but I’ve often wondered about energy shields. The biggest would be Scarif from Rogue One. That’s a entire planet that is enclosed in a energy shield that has a very physical barrier preventing space craft AND transmissions from getting to and from the surface without a powerful transmitter (that probably had to relay through the Shield Gate station to even get out). SO how does a planet like that maintain habitability? No stellar heat from the system’s star to warm the planet, the low altitude of the shield was clearly cutting through the upper atmosphere (the entire battle takes place in the highest portions of Scarif’s atmosphere). I just wonder how the planet could maintain habitability under those conditions? It would either be frigid (wouldn’t freeze entirely because the majority of a planet’s heat comes from it’s molten core) or cook itself from the retained heat.