Gives the term ‘face mask’ a whole new meaning.

When I was at school, I had a particularly lazy history teacher that would just assign us a book to read in class. Just, here’s a book. Read it and learn. If that wasn’t bad enough, the book itself was probably written about a hundred years ago, meaning it was a real slog to get through. On the plus side, the teacher never actually checked if we were reading the book, which meant if we just looked like we were reading it, we could get away with taking a quick nap. I was fortunate enough to have very long hair, so if I positioned myself correctly with my chin resting on my arm, I gave off the appearance that I was actually reading the book, with my hair shielding my face from sight. Some of the best naps I ever took were in that history class.

Sadly, now that I am grown up, it’s harder and harder to take naps like that. Especially during working hours; it’s pretty difficult to sneak a quick nap when you’re typing away at your desk, or while you’re ringing up someone’s groceries.

Somewhere where you might be able to get away with a sneaky snooze is in a meeting. You know the one; the boss is droning on and on about something that could have just been summed up in a simple e-mail. Twitter user @silver_eel has come up with the perfect solution to not get busted mid-meeting.

▼ “I made a mask using a 3-D printer.”

@silver_eel made a ‘face mask’ using a 3-D printer. As you can see, the quality is absolutely amazing and would be enough to fool anyone! The attention to detail is seriously impressive, from the silver hairs in the beard down to the texture of the skin. If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t spot that this was a mask. It’s practical too, and will fit nicely into your bag, as demonstrated below.

▼ Imagine handing this in to a lost and found…

However, there is a slight flaw to @silver_eel’s excellent design.

“The scanning was so high quality and accurate, that it’s a perfect fit to my face. So perfect in fact, that when I wear it, I can’t breathe or see out of it.”

Sadly, the design is so perfect that you are unable to breathe or see when using it. So we can’t really recommend it for taking a nap, and we definitely don’t recommend wearing it when riding a motorbike, as the third picture in @silver_eel’s tweet bizarrely seems to suggest. In fact, Twitter users were particularly amused by the slight morbidity in the third picture…

“The third picture looks like a catastrophe.. “Excuse me, police? I just spotted a motorcycle helmet with a human head inside it. Please come quickly.””
“If I saw the third picture on the road at night, I’d be pretty shocked.”
“The third picture is a good way to stop motorcycle theft.”
“The third picture is really scary!!”

Even though this mask won’t really work during meetings (due to the lack-of-breathing thing), we can only hope more of these ingenious ideas will start to pop up in the future. Especially for a country as sleep deprived as Japan is, devices to help you get a quick forty winks are definitely welcomed. Hopefully next time they won’t be as creepy as this one though!

Source: Twitter@silver_eel via Togetter
Image: Pakutaso
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