AI-Driven Dynamic Face Mask Adapts To Exercise and Contamination Levels

Many people have become familiar with using face masks to protect themselves and others throughout the coronavirus pandemic, yet that does not mean the masks are consistently comfortable, especially during exercise. Now, scientists reporting in ACS Nano have created a dynamic respirator that regulates its pore size in response to altering conditions, such as exercise or air contamination levels, allowing the wearer to take a breath more easily when the highest degree of filtration is not called for.

The face masks protect against the spread of the COVID-19 causing virus, but individuals with respiratory system troubles also use them to filter out harmful contaminants. Nevertheless, in some circumstances, high degrees of filtration are not needed, such as when air contamination levels are reduced or when someone is working out outdoors alone, which is generally considered a low-risk activity for spreading out COVID-19. But present masks cannot get used to varying conditions.

With time, the entrapped, exhaled breath can produce feelings of heat, humidity, halitosis, and pain, especially as more breath is exhaled during exercise. Seung Hwan Ko and his colleagues intended to make a respirator that might instantly adjust its filtration qualities in response to changing conditions.

The scientists created a dynamic air filter with micropores that enlarge when the filter is stretched, allowing more air to travel through. A considerable improvement in the breathability of the filter, which was made from electrospun nanofibers, was achieved with only approximately a 6% loss in infiltration effectiveness.

The team, after that, placed a stretcher around the filter attached to a lightweight, portable device that included a sensor, air pump, and microcontroller chip. The device contacts wirelessly with an external computer system running artificial intelligence (AI) software that responds to particle matter in the air, in addition to adjustments in the wearer’s breathing patterns during exercise. Two of the filters were placed on each side of a face mask and examined on human volunteers. The stretcher correctly produced a smaller improvement in pore dimension when volunteers worked out in a contaminated ambiance than when they worked out in clean air.

Notably, the researchers claim that the AI software enables the respirator to adapt to people’s unique breathing features, which could be used to make a personalized face mask.

To make the system smaller sized, lighter, and less complex, the stretcher might become upgraded to have a pump-free mechanism, they include.

Reference: “Dynamic Pore Modulation of Stretchable Electrospun Nanofiber Filter for Adaptive Machine Learned Respiratory Protection” by Jaeho Shin, Seongmin Jeong, Jinmo Kim, Yun Young Choi, Joonhwa Choi, Jae Gun Lee, Seongyoon Kim, Munju Kim, Yoonsoo Rho, Sukjoon Hong, Jung-Il Choi, Costas P. Grigoropoulos and Seung Hwan Ko,  29 September 2021, ACS Nano.
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c06204