On Masks and Disguises

Realistically speaking here, how much of one's face would have to be covered by a mask in order to be unrecognizable to their lover, sibling, and child? The eyes and top half of the face are a given, but will they still be recognizable if the mouth is exposed? I've tried searching for scientific articles about face recognition with regards to such things, but I haven't found any.

In addition, several people I know in real life I've asked about this mention that the person's pheromones (which obviously aren't covered by a mask) would make the person's family much more likely to recognize them (especially the lover). Does anybody know anything about this?

Finally, the character in this story that I'm writing is going to great lengths to disguise himself. The reason these lengths are so insane is that he's going to be travelling with an alternate version of himself and his lover for a short period of time. Aside from a mask, this includes changing his posture (so nobody notices that he's the exact same height of his other self), dying his hair, speaking in a thick accent and a different voice, and adopting a completely different fighting style. Is there anything big that I'm missing?

Let's put it this way: In the Spider-Man trilogy, Aunt May should have worked out that Peter was Spider-Man considering how physically close he let her get, never mind the fact that he wasn't even trying to disguise his voice.

Don't underestimate the other body things - such as the person's walking gait and the way they move their body - can be recognisable.

I'm completely certain that if I covered myself head-to-to with a Spider-Man-style suit - complete with the one-way-glass lenses so that not a square-millimetre of skin was showing - my family would still recognise me walking by (and I don't think I've got a particularly unusual way of walking).

Maintaining a false posture, mannerisms and walking style would be very difficult - quite a test of the person's acting and improv. skills.

edited 9th Sep '13 10:58:33 PM by Wolf1066

All you have to do is wear a hood and rub mascara around your eyes, and you should be set.

edited 9th Sep '13 11:11:56 PM by Ryuhza

Nah, all you have to do is take your glasses off and change your outfit.

Note: this may only work in Smallville and Metropolis - I met a woman from New York who recognised me without my glasses on (so now we know why Spidey has the full-head-cover thing going on - people in New York are smart enough not to fall for the glasses trick.)

In the 1929 movie version of The Desert Song, the heroine didn't recognise the hero even though all he did was wear a mask covering part of his face along with a red cloak. Now that I know about the gait thing, his Paper-Thin Disguise seems even stranger.

edited 10th Sep '13 3:25:29 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

Someone I went to high school with recognised me over 10 years later, despite the fact that I had grown a beard, had long hair and was wearing glasses (none of which I had in high school) and had developed an adult body rather than the scrawny adolescent build - and when I asked how she recognised me, she said it was the way I walk. That's a person who only got to see me for part of the day, five days a week.

Another person I went to high school with recognised me at a distance despite the above-mentioned appearance changes while he was travelling down the road at 100km/h and I was walking backwards (hitch-hiking). He recognised at enough of a distance to stop the car without undue fuss. His car was heavily loaded with all his stuff and he wouldn't have stopped at all if he hadn't recognised me.

Since I didn't walk around high school backwards, I'm at a loss as to how he recognised me over that distance.

If people who only casually knew me and haven't seen me for over ten years can recognise me despite a face-obscuring beard, eye-distorting glasses and a change in image, the only people likely to be fooled by a disguise would be complete strangers.

Right, but there's also examples of the opposite. You meet someone you think is a friend of a friend, you can even chat with them for a while(with them thinking the same thing about you). One week later you hear that this 'friend' have been in Thailand the last two weeks.

or Bob being on tv and you think "How uncanny, that guy looks like Bob" instead of "Hey, Bob's on TV."

edited 10th Sep '13 5:56:34 AM by m8e