A smartphone-connected face mask?A Romanian engineer has designed a mask that is equipped with a sensor that detects COVID-19 particles. Now, he won the top prize at a contest from MIT Media Lab, the Calvert Journal reported.
The MIT’s pandemic response lab launched this contest asking engineers and designers to come up with creative responses that reimagine face coverings and personal protective equipment.
The “social mask” - as called by his creator - is a minimalist and transparent mask featuring a biosensor that can connect to a smartphone, "a real option for the future,” said the award-winning designer, Burzo Ciprian.
Thanks to an app directly connected to the hi-tech mask, users can detect the number of COVID-19 particles around them and estimate their risk of infection, the journal explained.
“We should know who is infected in our area, and get informed on our smartphone about what the biosensor has detected based on surrounding particles,” Ciprian said.