Now, a face mask that uses AI to adapt to different user conditions

Face masks became a common thing mainly after COVID-19 struck and now they are considered an essential tool in preventing respiratory ailments. However, most of the times we find masks as an obligation and a deterrent in carrying out our day to day activities, especially while in gym or while running.

The Seoul National University in South Korea has developed a face mask that can adapt to your changing conditions and environment using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

When do masks become uncomfortable?

People find masks uncomfortable, especially during exercising. It is the time when the body demands more oxygen, as a result breathing increases. However, the filter of the mask induces the pressure drop. More the efficiency of the filter, greater will be the pressure drop and that much harder it becomes to breathe thus making the user uncomfortable.

Since the pandemic started in 2020, there have been several instances of students and fitness freaks collapsing and even dying during physical exercises due to wearing masks. This means that one single type of filter mask cannot react properly to the dynamically changing condition of the user.

User-friendly masks

Professor Seung Hwan Ko, who specialises in Applied Nano & Thermal Science at the Seoul National University, says that most face masks do not pay attention to the change of the users’ condition and environment and just focus on increasing the filtering efficiency. “The mask may have a very high filtration efficiency, but it does not mean it is user-friendly. In fact, a high-efficiency filter means the mask is hard to breathe and uncomfortable,” Professor Hwan Ko told New-Medical magazine.

The user, therefore, is required to carry different types of face masks and change them depending on his or her physical demand or environment change.

The AI-driven face mask automatically changes the pore size, changing the trade-off between the comfortability and filtering efficiency depending on the user’s condition (predict the short-term respiration rate change with the aid of AI).

Called dynamic respirator, this mask is smart enough to automatically transform its filtration characteristics to fit the given circumstance. This means the system is designed to be capable of ‘sensing’ the environment associated with its operation.

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Professor Seung Hwan Ko calls it the world’s first ‘dynamically tunable face mask’.

How is the AI-driven mask better than conventional masks?

Most off-the-shelf face masks have fabric air filters which use network of fibres to form a loosely packed sponge-like porous structure. When air passes through the entangled porous structure, the small airborne particles, which we call pollutants, collide with the fibres and adhere to them. This is how a face mask filters pollutants.

The AI-driven mask operates on a similar filtration mechanism, yet differs greatly in that it allows for dynamic tuning of how the mechanism actually works.

The system consists of a PM (particulate matter) sensor that measures how much of the ambient air is polluted and the barometers are used for sensing the wearer’s respiratory pattern reflecting the physical condition. The information collected from the sensors is then used to make comprehensive ‘situational awareness’ of the AI algorithm which then generates the dynamic adjustment of filtration characteristics to suit different situations.

The most important quality of the AI-driven mask or dynamic respirator is that it shifts the focus in masks from filters to people (users).