The coronavirus pandemic has forced people across the globe to implement the new normal of wearing masks while stepping out. Developers in Japan have come up with a new smart mask that has the ability to connect wirelessly to the internet with the help of a smartphone. This might surely sound surprising and weird but quite predicted in an era when the technology managed to spread its arms in every possible sector,. Be it smartphones, smart watches, smart displays or smart homes we have got it all and a smart mask would also soon become a part of the routine.
Japanese startup, Donut Robotics, have created the smart mask which can disseminate messages and translate the Japanese in to eight different languages. It is a plastic white mask that can be placed regular face and can be connected to the phone with the help of Bluetooth. People who are wearing the mask can send text messages, make calls and also raise the volume levels of the user’s voice.
The startup came up with the idea as they needed to introduce a gadget that could be actually useful during the pandemic when masks are mandatory. The coronavirus pandemic caused a loss of an order for robot guides and translators from the Haneda Airport at Tokyo and the company is not yet sure about the future demand of the products. The company took just one month to develop the mask and has been created by engineer Shunshuke Fujibayashi. The mask has been made to interpret speech by mapping face muscles.
The budget that was used to develop the product was about $260,000 that was raised after sale of Donut Robotics shares with the help of the crowd-funding site Fundinno. From September, 2020, the first batch of 5,000 masks are expected to be shipped to Japan. The company is also looking forward to do business in Europe , U.S. and China.
Photo Credits: Phone arena
