Move beyond regular masks to get yourself cutting-edge ones that boast advanced technology and smart designing. Here are a few.
THE SMILING MASK: JabberMask is a voice-activated cotton face mask that smiles when asked to. It has LEDs in the shape of a mouth that imitates your facial movements. Its black colour highlights the LEDs when they light up. Commands are given through a voice-activated mic. This comes in three models: Lite, Deluxe, and Pro. The Lite has 6×6 RGB LEDs, while the other two have 8×8 RGB LEDs. Both possess Micro-USB-rechargeable batteries.
THE BUG KILLER: People get bored and boredom leads to innovation. Masks are a case in point. Mask Capacity company is planning a line of Bluetooth-enabled coronavirus blockers called Mconnect masks. It’s an antimicrobial face mask with a ‘lifted mouth covering’ to tune down muffling. Its Bluetooth 5.0 interior mic and headphone setup is compatible with both iOS or Android and has a range of 45 feet. Still in the crowd-funding stage, it’s expected to be available by February 2021.
HELMET STYLE: If there are ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ masks, there will be Jedi helmets in this age of corona wars. AIR by MicroClimate is the first. It’s a futuristic black helmet, which can create its own climate once your head is encased in it by filtering recyclable air through a HEPA filter and noiseless fans. It’s these filters that give it an edge over N95 masks.
MASKED REALITY: Now that we are on the subject of transparency, 3D Mask by inventor Ed Glasner of CD is a custom-made transparent mask, which can be customised to fit the contours of your face and eyes—a first for a mask. This eliminates the gaps otherwise found in regular masks that make you vulnerable to infection. It’s easy to use: just cut it out of non-woven melt-blown fabric using a pair of scissors. It’s reusable and can be recycled too. It is a perfect fit with two large circular ports on either side of the mouth and has various filter options. Your mouth is visible through the mask’s flat frontal plane—be careful when you sneer.
FOG YOU NOT: The biggest grouse people have is that their spectacle lenses cloud up while wearing a mask. In fact, US health workers tape their masks down on their noses. The solution seems to have arrived in the shape of the Tactika Facewear mask, which has a pair of glasses attached to the mask. It has a patented fog barrier to divert air around the sides of the face and away from the lenses. The trademark Tactanium provides satisfactory anti-fog performance and has a scratch-resistant coating. It’s safe because all the parts snap seamlessly into place making it unnecessary to touch.