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This mask catches Covid and notifies you on your phone

This mask catches Covid and notifies you on your phone

Just imagine: you are standing on a bus, you put a mask on your face and an alarm appears on your phone. Notifies you that you have been in contact with someone who has Covid-19.

Yes, this can happen. The mask presented in the journal Matter can warn users if virus particles are present in the surrounding air. The sensor mask connects to the phone. While the notification of danger on the phone comes after 10 minutes.

This is a good solution not to avoid the virus, but at least to break the chain of transmission. If you receive a notification and you are on your way to grandma's or to work, you turn back from the road.

This mask catches Covid and notifies you on your phone

Study author Yin Fang, a scientist at Shanghai Tongji University in China, said: "Previous research has shown that wearing face masks can reduce the risk of spreading and contracting the disease. So we wanted to create a mask that can detect the presence of the virus in the air and warn the wearer."

When the scientists tested the new mask in a closed room, the sensor responded to only 0.3 microliters of fluid containing viral proteins. To put it into perspective, this amount is about 70 to 560 times less than the volume of fluid produced in a sneeze and much less than the volume produced by coughing or talking.

The mask worked particularly well in poorly ventilated spaces, such as elevators or closed rooms, where the risk of infection is high.

Currently researchers are still working to increase the sensitivity of this mask and the range of viruses it can identify.