Masks

Wearing face masks and maintaining social distances were a significant part of the world's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, new research says the practices are not only effective at saving human lives, but chimp lives as well.

Many people still often wear masks, either to keep from spreading viruses that they've got, or to manage a respiratory problem. An experimental new mask takes things a step further, by analyzing its wearer's breath to check their state of health.

A new device has been shown to protect wearers from airborne viruses while leaving their face mask-free. It blocks microbes via a curtain of air which has itself been pretreated to kill any viruses present within it.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, "These ol' human faces just aren't expressive enough?" Perhaps you need the Qudi Mask 2, a gadget that lets you wear all your emotions on your robot-screen head, in the least subtle way we can imagine.

If you're frequently making confidential phone calls, putting your hand over your mouth and whispering is a far from ideal means of maintaining privacy. That's exactly where the Skyted Silent Mask is intended to come in.

The REM stage of sleep plays an important role in learning, memory and brain development. Currently, lab-based tests are required to gauge how much REM sleep a person is getting. The SomaSleep mask, however, is claimed to let users do so at home.

While it's still important to wear a face mask in many situations, that mask won't be fully effective if it doesn't fit properly. That's why a team at MIT has designed a device to assess how well a mask fits an individual user, quickly and easily.

For the last few years, Kevin Ngo has spent his spare time developing a new kind of reusable face mask. The resulting Flo Mask is a radically different take on face masks: light, comfortable, and as protective as any disposable mask around.

Over the past couple of years, disposable face masks have become a very plentiful form of garbage. There may actually be a use for them, however, as recent research shows that they could strengthen concrete when added to it.

As important as face masks are in our current pandemic-riddled world, they have a major environmental impact. Now scientists have demonstrated a novel method for disposing of old masks by using them to make low-cost, flexible and efficient batteries.

Healthcare workers often have to wear masks for up to 12 continuous hours, during which time they may become seriously exhausted. A new mask-mounted device is designed to help, by monitoring their vital signs and detecting leaks in the mask's seal.

At the RazerCon 2021 livestream event, Razer launched new Kraken headsets with HyperSense haptic feedback technology cooked in, adding another immersive dimension to gameplay by converting sound signals into "dynamic touch-sensory feedback."