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Scuba Mask

Scuba masks come in two major categories, partial or traditional masks only cover the eyes and nose; full facial masks cover the entire front of your head, from forehead to chin. The major purpose of a diving mask is to allow the diver to see underwater.

Scuba masks are required for us to see underwater because of the way water transmits light. Water has a higher refraction rate than air does; this means water scatters light more readily than air. This is why you can see much further on a clear day than you can when it is raining; the water scatters what light there is, reducing your vision. When water is in direct contact with your eye, it acts like a giant cornea, which distorts everything you see. Diving masks compensate for this by allowing the light to enter your eye from the small space of air in the mask instead of from the water directly.

While this allows you to see more clearly than you otherwise could, you still have distorted vision while underwater. The majority of advances in scuba masks have gone into reducing the distortion inherent in underwater vision. The most modern masks use a dual lens system- along with special contacts- to almost eliminate the distortion. The latest state of the art scuba masks can display diving information from your diving computer, such as depth, air remaining, temperature, and other useful information right on the surface of the mask.

 

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