Tag Archives: face mask

It’s almost 2022 and we still haven’t figured out transparent face masks yet…

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November 2021 marks two important occasions – firstly, the imminent arrival of the new year 2022, and secondly, it also is the 2-year anniversary of this blasted pandemic that’s kept us all indoors and has altered life in unthinkable ways. This means we’ve spent two years trying to figure out a cure to the disease, but haven’t tackled the everyday pain points of living in a pandemic… notably, the issue of the suffocating (both visually and physically) face mask.

In two years of wearing face masks, there haven’t been any phenomenal mass efforts to change how masks look or function. We’ve covered our fair share of futuristic masks on this site, but none of them have really sparked a global movement to wear transparent shields around our noses and mouths. It’s just reinforced my belief that easier solutions are always better, and that the perfect face mask is still a relentless work in progress… and South African designer George Gibbens has thrown his hat into the ring with the Venta, a transparent face mask that received the Red Dot Design Concept Award this year.

The Venta mask separates the conventional face mask into three simple parts. A transparent shield, two replaceable filters, and the head strap. Designed to highlight your expression, the mask comes with a flexible transparent TPU cover, with two air filters plugged into the side, working almost like a pair of gills on either side of the face. The air you breathe enters and exits through these filters, ensuring you inhale clean air, and exhale without letting respiratory droplets out into the atmosphere. While the mask is currently in its developmental/conceptual phase, one would imagine it comes with some sort of anti-fog coating on the inside that ensures the transparent mask doesn’t mist up on the inside with your breath. The filters also automatically change color when they need to be replaced, making it easier to know when your mask needs a fresh set of filters so that you’re always breathing clean air.

“Throughout the edges of the clear front is a metal reinforced foam rubber frame. This allows the frame to be malleable and adjust to any face size and shape”, Gibbens mentions. “A new replaceable filter system that changes color to indicate when it needs to be replaced is an innovative solution to the problem of filter replacement in safety masks. A fully transparent front body allows facial expressions to be observed.”

The Venta Mask is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2021.

Designer: George Gibbens

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This tiny $25 nasal spray developed by a Harvard professor could make COVID-19 face-masks unnecessary

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Just like you brush your teeth and take a bath every morning to protect yourself from sickness and bad hygiene, the Fend spray hopes to add one more simple process to your day, and in doing so, aims at drastically reducing the chance of transmitting or contracting any air-borne diseases. Formulated by Harvard professor, Dr. David Edwards, and encased in a bottle designed by Ammunition, the spray aims at reinforcing the nasal passage to prevent respiratory droplets from making their way out into the atmosphere.

While the topic of a mask mandate is enough to get the entire internet up in arms, the science behind it is, for the most part, pretty simple. Breathing causes respiratory droplets to fly out of your nose and mouth, which could carry viruses and potential diseases. The cotton face-mask simply serves as a physical barrier, preventing droplets from going out or traveling in… but the Fend hopes to fix the droplets at their very source.

The simple $25 nasal spray aims at reducing the number of respiratory droplets you breathe out by as much as 99%, drastically cutting the chances of spreading viruses or diseases. Invented in 2020 by Dr. David Edwards, an aerosol physicist by profession, during the initial spread of COVID-19, the spray is a special solution of saltwater fortified with calcium, which hydrates the mucus layer in your respiratory airways – your body’s natural defense system against airborne pathogens. A single spritz of the Fend’s liquid stabilizes the mucus, making you less likely to exhale droplets, and even trapping inhaled droplets so that they don’t make their way into your lungs. In clinical trials, FEND was shown to clean away up to 99% of respiratory droplets from the airways for up to 6 hours. You can read the peer-reviewed research here.

The spray is administered through a small, pocket-friendly bottle designed by San Francisco-based design firm Ammunition. Working off an older prototype of the Fend bottle, which retailed for $50 and came with a glass bottle and a spray mechanism powered by batteries, Ammunition got to work, fixing all those previous pitfalls to make the design simpler, more cost-effective, and efficient. In an interview with Fast Company, Ammunition founder Robert Brunner highlighted all the problems with the previous bottle – “It’s too expensive, it’s fragile, it requires batteries, it’s heavy, it doesn’t travel well. To turn it off you have to take the batteries out.”

In its newer avatar, the Fend bottle makes a few important design considerations. The new bottle is considerably smaller, operates without batteries, and comes pre-loaded with enough spray liquid to last an entire month with daily use. Its form looks nothing like those generic archaic nasal sprays or the L-shaped inhalers, a distinction that Brunner mentioned was incredibly necessary since the Fend is positioned as a modern health-and-hygiene product, and not something that would make the user self-conscious that they had some medical ailment.

The old Fend bottle vs. the new Fend bottle.

The new bottle does, however, celebrate the original Fend’s hourglass form. It comes with an opaque design, featuring two hourglass elements that press together, with a rubber waist in between that flexes when the spray is deployed. Small enough to be carried with you, and with an aesthetic that resembles more of a fragrance mister than a medical device, the Fend looks pure and comes with a fun, interactive design. The nozzle on the top deploys an ultra-fine mist of droplets perfectly small enough to travel through your nose right down to your trachea, where they help reinforce the mucus layer, giving you practically the same amount of protection from airborne diseases as a cotton mask. Designed to integrate into your everyday life, the folks behind the Fend recommend using it roughly twice a day, while you’re around people. Ultimately they hope that it becomes more of a common practice like flossing or popping a breath mint before going on a date, or deodorant before stepping out. I’d choose that kind of future over cotton masks any day of the week!

Designer: Ammunition Group for Fend

The post This tiny $25 nasal spray developed by a Harvard professor could make COVID-19 face-masks unnecessary first appeared on Yanko Design.

LG’s PuriCare face mask gets in-built mike and speakers, giving the wearable design improved functionality

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Who would have thought a couple of years earlier, that face masks would be in line for a high-tech upgrade. In fact, big brands like Razer and Mastercard deploying their precious resources and time to develop next-gen masks that ups your style quotient exponentially in the current uncertain times. Even lifestyle brands like Will.i.am or upcoming designers like Ollie Butt believe the face masks are here to stay. LG is another big name that forayed into developing a high-tech face mask last year and has been improving the design and function of the beta model ever since.

Now they’ve announced the latest version of the PuriCare Wearable Air Purifier (that’s an odd naming convention) that had three fans and a couple of HEPTA filters to keep most pathogens out. The new face mask has a smaller and lighter motor, and built-in microphones and speakers. The latter helps in automatically amplifying the wearer’s voice when talking courtesy of the VoiceON technology. For that matter, the techno Razer Project Hazel face mask has a similar tech to make communication easier. The improvements on the LG PuriCare don’t stop there as it weighs just 94 grams now and has a 1,000mAh battery with a recharge time of two hours. LG says it can be worn without any discomfort for around eight hours, but hey, remember it is a mask, and it will feel a bit uncomfortable after just a few hours. LG claims in the fresh press release that the ergonomic PuriCare Wearable is designed in a way to “minimizes air leakage around the nose and chin to create a tight but comfortable seal for hours.”

The improved version targeted towards active individuals is slated to come to Thailand in August, and it was worn by the Thai Olympics team on their way to the summer games in Tokyo. Launch in other markets is dependent on the local regulatory authority approvals. So it remains to be seen how the LG PuriCare Wearable Air Purifier fares in real-life settings. How the users perceive it is going to be more important than anything else, so we’ll have to wait and watch!

Designer: LG

Face Masks are not going anywhere, so this mask is built with an opening for drinking liquids safely during travel

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Wearing face masks in airports and airplanes can get uncomfortable, especially if your trip is a long one. It can become difficult to breathe, there’s no eating or drinking, and it gets pretty sweaty under there. After traveling forty hours from the United States back to China, designer Ruitao Li developed the Umai Facemask, a silicone face covering with a breathing valve, air filter, and small mouthpiece slot that can be used to eat and drink while wearing the mask.

While we haven’t entered a post-COVID era yet, we are seeing a small light at the end of the tunnel. Rounding the corner, many restaurants and bars are opening back up to the public around the world. However, with new variants causing hot spots and surges all over the world, masks are still as necessary as ever. The Umai Facemask comes as a set, including the silicone face mask as well as a water bottle with a soft, bendable straw that fits into the mask’s mouthpiece slot.

Users can fill their bottles with their preferred beverages and say goodbye to airplane dry mouths. The removable straw can even be swapped from Umai’s water bottle and used to drink from another one. Umai Facemask’s breathing valve and air filter also make wearing a face mask feel a little more comfortable. Powered up with a type-c charge, the air filter ensures that the air you’re breathing in is clean and fresh, while the breathing valve circulates the air inside the mask to avoid the damp humidity that comes with conventional face masks.

Not eating and drinking while wearing a facemask has to be the hardest thing about traveling nowadays‒who doesn’t love airplane food? Designed to make the experience of modern travel feel a little more relaxed, the Umai Facemask doesn’t compromise the face mask’s primary purpose of keeping viruses and bacteria at bay, it enhances it. With adjustable aluminum nose pieces, hypoallergenic silicone covering, and several air filters, the Umai Facemask ensures comfort and safety.

Designer: Ruitao Li

Complete with a mouthpiece for eating and drinking, the Umai Facemask was designed to make modern travel more comfortable.

Constructed from hypoallergenic silicone, the Umai Facemask doesn’t cause acne or oily skin.

Traveling during the COVID-19 era requires a lot of caution, which can get uncomfortable.

Ruitao Li aimed to make a comfortable and safe face mask for the modern age.

Umai comes as a set, including the face mask, water bottle and bendable straw, and a type-c charger for the air filters.

Ruitao Li found that the most comfortable material for their face mask was silicone.

Medical professionals can also enjoy the benefits of eating and drinking while wearing a face mask.

The soft, bendable straw can be used for any water bottle as it is detachable.

Stocked with plenty of air filters and breathing valves, the Umai Facemask provides plenty of clean air to breathe.

This recycled stool is created from 4000 disinfected and hand-spun disposable face masks!

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Those blue and white face masks have become the unofficial icon of the pandemic era for all the wrong reasons. Seeing the disposable face mask worn by people has become just as common as seeing them on littered city sidewalks and street corners. Caught up in tangles of twigs and plastic waste, disposable face masks end up as floating marine debris since they cannot be recycled due to the potential risk of indirect infection and viral transmission within the recycling system. UK-based designer Joe Slatter noticed the blue and white litter all over the streets of London and decided to do something about it, weaving disinfected masks from the streets into what he calls the Veil Stool.

After collecting close to 4,000 masks from the streets of London, Slatter disinfected them by coating them in ozone spray and leaving them out in direct sunlight for four weeks. Once they were sanitized and prepared for the next step, an experimental period followed that led to Slatter discovering that 3-ply face masks, the blue and white disposable ones, could be spun into a soft yarn or melted down into a dense polypropylene structure. The stool’s final form finds a threaded, cushioned seat made from facemasks spun into a yarn mounted on top of three short stool legs hardened from melted face masks. Slatter’s recycled stool highlights not only the soft, cottony and dense, supportive nature of face masks but also the beauty that can come from confronting such a destructive issue as pollution.

For Slatter, this project goes beyond a simple recycled design, noting both the environmental and cultural significance of spinning disposable face masks into a stool, “The name ‘Veil’ comes from the notion of a veil being a fine material used to conceal the face, similar to that of a face mask. Veils are generally considered beautiful and therefore the name implies that it can be possible to see beauty in an object that is often disregarded, such as a face mask.”

Designer: Joe Slatter

By melting some of the face masks, Slatter created a three-leg base for the soft cushion, made from hand-spun face masks, to mount.

Following a period of experimentation, Slatter found out three-ply face masks could be spun into soft yarn.

4,000 masks were taken from the streets of London to create one stool.

The blue and white gradient is reminiscent of the iconic face masks but can stand alone just as well.

The yarn looks and feels familiar, but its hand-spun from three-ply face masks.

Materials used to build Veil Stool all derive from blue and white face masks.

DIY 3D Printable Mecha and Sci-Fi Face Masks: Man & Machine, Sanding Extreme

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You wouldn’t download a mech, but you would and you can download a mecha’s mask. It’s all thanks to designers like Etsy seller SeberdrA, who offers STL files of masks and other facial cosplay accessories inspired by popular mecha, cyborgs, and other anime, video games, and science fiction characters. Here’s a 3D printed sample from Gundam fan Mecha Gaikotsu:

SeberdrA has a good variety of well-made designs. Here are my favorites from their selection:

As with many 3D printed projects, you’ll have to do a bit of trial and error when printing these designs, especially if you want to wear them. Here’s Mecha Gaikotsu’s video about his experience with one of the mecha masks:

Take an orbital elevator to SeberdrA’s Etsy shop to snag the designs. They usually go for around $20 to $24 (USD) each.

[via Mecha Gaikotsu]

This fan-powered face mask wants to make uncomfortable, stuffy N95 masks obsolete

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I personally think problem-solving has a two-pronged approach. I’ve written about a whole bunch of masks in the last year and the one piece of feedback I usually get is that “Shouldn’t we just clean the environment instead so we don’t have to wear masks?” It’s a pretty straightforward question – why design masks when we should be cleaning the air we breathe instead? It’s sort of like saying why perform angioplasties when we could just be eating healthier? One solution is long-term, the other is much more immediate and is the need of the hour. I’d like to believe that the world 10 years from now will be less polluted… but we’ll need to make peace with wearing masks up until then. As we work towards that future, Maasc aims at making mask-wearing a little less cumbersome and a little more comfortable.

What sets the Maasc apart from your surgical grade mask or the N95 mask is its patented BreatheEase™ Fan which provides you with a breeze of purified air inside your mask. Unlike most masks that require you to breathe extra hard to pull air through those filters, Maasc does it for you, giving you both filtration and breezy comfort without that familiar stuffy feeling. The fan, which sits right in front of your face, pulls air from the outside and pushes it through the Maasc’s replaceable filter system. Air passes through an activated carbon filter, which removes hazardous Sulphur Oxide and Nitrogen Oxide gases and odors, and subsequently through an FFP3/N99 filter which traps 99% of particles as small as 0.15 microns thick. The Maasc even has a built-in sensor that computes your filter’s life based on the fan speed and your duration of use. As your filter reaches the end of its life, Maasc sends you a smart alert, letting you know it’s time to replace the filter to keep your mask running optimally. The fan, filter, and sensor combined make the Maasc a wearable air-purifier that’s much more superior to the disposable cloth mask which becomes a humid mess on your face within minutes of wearing it.

The Maasc’s hardware sits within a housing that fits comfortably on your face. A stretchable strap goes around your head, with ear-holes that avoid pinching your ear. The face-mask even comes with its own soft, hypoallergenic silicone seal that avoids air-leakage, not only making the mask much safer but also preventing spectacles from fogging! The Maasc’s design creates a one-way airflow, preventing stale air from circulating within the mask. The BreatheEase™ Fan can move as many as 35L of air per minute, generating a breeze within the mask, while exhausts on the bottom of the mask expel the air you breathe out.

Designed to last beyond the pandemic, the Maasc puts industrial-grade tech into a consumer-grade product. Sure, it’ll work in preventing the transmission of germs, but the Maasc is designed for much more than just that. It works at home to prevent dust-allergies while you’re cleaning the house, or even outdoors when the air quality drops below a certain point. Moreover, it’s ideal even for DIY use, industrial workers, and that internal fan ensures you’re never gasping for air, making it perfect while exercising too. Each Maasc comes with removable, replaceable FFP3 N99 filters, and runs on rechargeable replaceable lithium batteries, ensuring months, if not years of constant use. You can choose from a variety of sizes to fit your face perfectly, and even customize your Maasc by mixing and matching colors on the silicone seal and the frame cover!

Designers: Adel Arigue & José Tavares of Maasc

Click Here to Buy Now: $72 $160 (55% off). Hurry, only 25/50 left!

Maasc – Industrial-grade Mask for Daily Use

The Maasc is a comfortable personal powered air purifying respirator for prolonged hours and daily usage.

When & Where to Wear Maasc

Patented BreatheEase Fan System

The patented BreatheEase™ fan system pulls air through a premium quality filter at a rate of 35L/min, constantly providing a supply of fresh filtered air. It is recommend that you use two speeds for when you are walking or practicing moderate exercise and for when you are working more intensively. Maasc has a one-way airflow, which means the entrance and the end exhaustion of the air occurs separately.

– Air is sucked through the pre-filter and filter, eliminating particles and pollutant gases. The filtering surface is large to reduce the air resistance
– Air passes through the fan and is inhaled to ease breathing
– The fresh breeze of the airflow eliminates the nuisance of the exhaled air with excess heat and moisture and keeps expelling it out from the Maasc quickly through the exhaustion valve located on the bottom part. Even when the BreatheEase™ Fan is off the outlet valve safely closes when inhaling to allow you to inhale only filtered air

High Performance Filtration

The electrostatically charged CE FFP3/N99 filter blocks 99% of particles down to 0.15μm. That’s 30 times smaller than a human hair. Additionally, the Activated-carbon pre-filter stops hazardous Sulphur Oxide and Nitrogen Oxide gases, as well as odor, something you usually only find in heavy-duty masks far beyond the price point.

Innovative High Grade Silicone Airtight Seal

The LFGB CE food-grade and hypoallergenic silicone seal avoids leakage of air both inwards and outwards, avoiding the infamous foggy glasses and the ingress of unfiltered air. And more: the soft silicone is cool to the touch and won’t mark your face. It seals surprisingly well even for the “beardy” gentlemen!

Click Here to Buy Now: $72 $160 (55% off). Hurry, only 25/50 left!

Mastercard’s Priceless Mask is a sound reactive wearable with LED lights for the Gen-Z!

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It was not long ago when the clothes and shoes were the clear reflections of your personality. Add to that another accessory absolutely necessary in current times when safety is second to none. Yes, face masks have become an extension to one’s personality with the safety and style quotient attached as 17 percent of the Gen Z and millennial crowd choose unique designs matching their outfit. Understandably 14 percent of the younger generation also believes that the face masks they sport reflect their true self.

Taking this opportunity to create something stylish to pep up people’s lives, Mastercard has come up with the idea of a limited edition face mask which resonates with the sound of music or any ambient sound in the environment. Mastercard is the headline sponsor of The BRIT Awards 2021 for the 23rd year in a row, and they’ve decided to design the face mask in close quarters with CuteCircuit (wearable technology pioneers) based on research which suggests, 38 percent of UK adults actually want a tech element incorporate in their first line of safety. Another finding is that 65 percent of these individuals want to see transparent masks for those hard of hearing, and 39 percent want a color code system to indicate the time for replacing a mask. “Face masks have become a feature of our everyday lives and maybe for some time to come. By implementing interactive technology into face masks, Mastercard has made the exciting step of marrying music and technology to bring fans closer to music and each other,” says Agnes Woolrich, the Head of Marketing and Communications, UK and Ireland, Mastercard

Mastercard chose Jack Whitehall to try out the new features of this unique face mask. Not surprisingly – the English comedian, presenter, actor, and writer was utterly impressed with what Mastercard and CuteCircuit have created. He said, “The limited-edition masks are a huge step up from the average face mask; I love the way that the lights flash and react to music and even my voice.” The mask gives people another way to connect with others in social settings like in a shopping mall or public transit. The tech here is courtesy of the 8×8 micro-LED light array, which comes to life in 64 pixels arrangement whenever music is played or surrounding ambient sounds are detected. These lights are rechargeable, and you can switch them on at will with the touch of a button.

Bringing together the passions for music, fashion, and technology – the limited edition face masks are everything one would want in their modern accessories. The Mastercard face mask will be available via Priceless on 20th May, and if you already love the idea, mark your calendars!  

Designer: Mastercard and CuteCircuit

Click Here to Buy!

 

How MagSafe helped create a face mask that’s comfortable to wear and easy to breathe through

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Here’s the fundamental usability-issue with masks. A mask’s quality is measured by how effective its filter is, but good air-filters are harder to breathe through. So a better mask is, well, to simply put it… less breathable. The problem with masks today, according to Kylie Smith, is the fact that they’re basically a filter strapped in front of your face. They’re like sun-glasses, in the way they just sit in front of your mouth and nose, filtering stuff as you breathe the same way sunglasses filter out excess sunlight. However, sunglasses don’t increase discomfort. Masks do.

Over the past 4 years (long before the word pandemic was common in our vocabulary), Kylie spent her time working behind the scenes to figure out how to ‘fix’ face-masks. According to her, the one variable most masks failed to consider was air-flow. Air tends to take the path of least resistance as you breathe. So good masks are difficult to breathe through because you’re forcing air through those filters, and regular masks cause the air to leak in through the sides and make your spectacles fog up. Teaming up with co-founder Rick Smith (who’s also credited with inventing the taser), Kylie designed the Exa Mask – a face mask that factored air-flow into its design, making it comfortable to wear and easy to breathe through, while providing 97% air filtration. The Exa Mask creates three separate channels to breathe through – one for each nostril, and one for your mouth. Using a patent-pending AirFrame, the Exa Mask ensures the air you breathe only has one way in and one way out, eliminating any chance of leakage. Besides, thanks to its unique construction, the mask’s filter doesn’t press against your face (like with N95 or surgical masks), which means it’s relatively easier to breathe through, and much more comfortable in the long run.

To achieve this, the Exa Mask uses a 3-part design. The first part is its unique AirFrame – a band that sits around your nose. The AirFrame comes with ear-hoops that secures the apparatus around your ears (like most masks). It features a medical-grade silicone nose-piece that creates a seal around your nose, ensuring the air you breathe through your nostrils doesn’t travel upwards and fog your glasses, or downwards, making your lips and chin feel sweaty. The air only travels forward and backward, through the Exa Mask’s replaceable PFE 97 filters (the second part of its design) These filters are placed at a calculated distance from your nostrils, ensuring the air you breathe is 97% purified. They never touch your nostrils either, making the mask-wearing experience much more comfortable. The Exa Mask’s third part is its snap-on Mask Shield, which covers your nose and mouth, protecting you with an additional layer of security from particles. Inspired by Apple’s simple and sophisticated MagSafe feature, the Exa Mask’s AirFrame comes with magnetic rings that let you snap the fabric shield on in place. The AirFrame gives the fabric shield its structure, so it never presses against your face as you breathe, and the magnetic feature means you can easily replace shields on a whim, periodically changing them when they need to be washed, or when you want to choose a Mask Shield that matches your outfit.

At the end of the day, what the Exa Mask really manages to do is recreate the feeling of ‘not wearing a mask’ by channeling the right air-flow pattern. With the Exa Mask, the air you breathe travels in the same directions as it would ‘without the mask’. It doesn’t linger around your mouth or fog your glasses. It travels forward and backward, because the Exa Mask’s air-flow pattern directs it to. The mask’s proprietary AirFrame creates a seal around your nose, ensuring your glasses never get foggy, while its snap-on fabric shield never presses against your face. The result is an experience that’s much more freeing. It prioritizes comfort, while still ensuring that the air you breathe is up to 97% pure. Adjustable ear-straps allow the Exa Mask to easily fit your face, no matter its shape or size, and those magnetic, replaceable fabric shields are a nice touch, allowing you to easily swap fascias to match your persona! The Exa Mask is set to ship in June 2021, and as a part of its company guarantee, backers will receive an extra mask for free if there’s any delay in shipping.

Designer: Exa

Click Here to Buy Now: $45 $90 (50% off). Hurry, deal ends in 72 hours!

Exa Mask – Performance, Comfort & Fashion

Traditional masks offer the bare minimum protection, muffle your voice and fog your glasses.  They even get hot and humid. Exa mask with their proprietary three-part system fully seals airflow around the inhalation track without moisture and heat creating discomfort so you can live life outside the home with confidence.

Secure Fit & Seal

Exa mask securely fit along the inhalation track that was typically only available to medical professionals.

Surgical Mask: Airflow leaks due to inadequate seal around the face.

N95 Mask: Even N95 does not seal entirely.

Exa Mask: Focused sealing provides proper air filtration.

Built for Performance

Exa conforms seamlessly to your unique facial structure for a comfortable fit all day long.

Designed for Life

The detachable nose piece called the AirFrame can stand alone so that you can still breathe pure, filtered air while eating and drinking at a restaurant.

The airframe is made of TR-90 Nylon, the same material as Oakley sunglasses. It is sunscreen, makeup, and oil proof so their product will last at least 2 years.

Click Here to Buy Now: $45 $90 (50% off). Hurry, deal ends in 72 hours!

Honeywell and rapper Will.i.am just debuted a futuristic face-mask with built-in wireless earphones

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I’ll be honest, nothing about that title is even remotely predictable. In fact, it gets progressively weirder with every subsequent word. You wouldn’t expect Will.i.am to release a medical product, more so, partner with Honeywell over it… but together the rapper and the OEM conglomerate collaborated over a mask that combines the best of both parties. Titled the XUPERMASK, the $299 face-mask comes with dual three-speed fans and HEPA filters, but also packs Bluetooth earphones with noise canceling audio and 7-hour battery life. I’ll be honest, the association with Will.i.am aside, the mask really looks pretty futuristic (it comes co-designed by Hollywood costume-designer Jose Fernandez, who also designed the SpaceX astronaut suits). The fact that it’s built by Honeywell lends it a good amount of credibility, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but I could actually see myself wearing one of these.

The XUPERMASK attempts at turning face-masks into a bit of a pop-culture item. It surely isn’t fluff… the mask is awaiting FDA approval, and it comes fitted with replaceable HEPA filters made by Honeywell – a company that’s built itself on designing the world’s greatest HVAC systems. The pop-culture element comes from rapper and Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am, who aims to turn the XUPERMASK into a renegade pair of wireless earphones too.

As far as the face-mask part of the design is concerned, the XUPERMASK sports a universal fit, thanks to a silicone face-seal and a high-performance elastic strap that wraps around your head. The mask is outfitted with dual-fans that work at 3-speed settings to deliver purified air directly to your face as you breathe. Air is pushed through a set of pleated HEPA filters manufactured by Honeywell, and the filters are designed to be replaced every 30 days for optimal performance. The fans themselves run for an impressive 7 hours on a full charge, providing enough usage to get you through most of your day… and to seal the deal, the mask even sports glowing LED rings around each fan for that futuristic appeal.

Aside from being just a face-mask, the XUPERMASK (pronounced Supermask, if you’re still wondering) also packs a pair of wireless earphones too. The earphones emerge from the sides of the mask, and can be docked on the mask itself on designated magnetic panels. When you want to wear them, just pop the earphones off and place them in your ear. The earphones come with Bluetooth 5.0, pairing seamlessly with any smart-device. They come with active noise-canceling (pretty impressive for a face-mask), and even house an integrated noise-reduction microphone for things like answering calls or sending voice-messages. There’s no indication of where this microphone is located, but I’d be thoroughly impressed if it was within the mask’s enclosure itself. It would essentially mean you could talk while wearing the mask and not have your voice get muffled.

The XUPERMASK comes in two colors for now – one in pure black, and another in a white + orange combination. Just visually, it does look pretty impressive. The LED rings, metallic fan covers, and those magnetic earbuds, all set the XUPERMASK apart. The mask even comes with a set of controls built on either side, allowing you to toggle fan speed, the LED light, switch on/off the ANC feature, and do basic things like answer calls or play-pause music. Off the top of my head, a fan-powered face-mask with earphones does sound like a crazy idea that might just work, and with the XUPERMASK, Honeywell and Will.i.am are betting on a future where masks will still be a common outdoor face-accessory… in which case, having wireless earphones built into your face-mask just sounds a tad bit more sensible. The XUPERMASK is currently available in two sizes, and for a retail price of $299. The mask comes as a part of a XUPERKIT (I’m guessing the nomenclature was Will.i.am’s idea), which includes a carry-case, 3 months worth of replaceable HEPA filters, a USB charging cable, and replaceable earphone tips for different ear-sizes. The XUPERMASK hasn’t received FDA approval yet, but it has been granted authorization for emergency use.

Designers: will.i.am & Jose I. Fernandez in partnership with Honeywell