Well these days, technologically speaking, 15 years really is a massive amount of time. 15 years ago was 1996. Think of everything that's happened tech-wise since 1996. A LOT of stuff. A helmet/mask thing with cameras doesn't seem so far fetched. Seems weird and useless, but possible.
And even then, it's a goddamned floating city of rich scientists, I'm sure they were probably capable of doing
some stuff in the earlier years of the Ark at sea, too.