FaceBit tracks a face covering’s fit and wear time, as well as its wearer’s vital signs
Researchers have developed a lightweight, reusable sensor that clips onto a mask to monitor how well it's working.
Its developers hope it will aid research and help health care workers and others who wear face coverings throughout the day to battle the transmission of diseases such as COVID. Every time mask wearers cough, scratch or make certain facial expressions, their face covering shifts-and a busy worker may not have time to recheck mask fit each time one of these movements occurs.
He decided to develop a device that could not only warn wearers when their mask leaks but also record their vital signs throughout the day, giving users a tool for assessing their own stress levels.
A pressure sensor detects leaks, indicating how well a mask is fitting.
Pressure changes also let the FaceBit determine when the mask is over someone's face, so it can record wear time and can enter "Sleep" mode when idle.
They claim the device can transform a variety of mask types into smart masks.
The team acknowledges that the fit detection feature only works properly with coverings that sit flush against the face, such as N95s. Although surgical masks and cloth coverings can be used with the FaceBit's wear-time-monitoring feature and its tracking of breathing and heart rate, these coverings allow too much outside air in around the edges for the device's fit-detection aspect to work.
A quantitative test might measure the concentration of particles on the inside of the mask and compare it with the concentration in the ambient air.
His team will assemble some FaceBits "And distribute them and let people use them, experiment and play with them." Other researchers will also be able to tweak the design, perhaps to improve the energy-harvesting components and extend the battery life, to study health care workers' fatigue throughout the day or to use the respiration monitor to learn about mask wearers' health.
Brosseau suggests one example of the latter: people entering a space that contained a contaminant could enhance their respirator with a hypothetical FaceBit that included a sensor for detecting the concentration of the environmental hazard.