International Research Journal of Education and Technology

Face masks provide effective, easy to-use, and low-cost protection against airborne pathogens or infectious agents, including SARS-CoV2. Existing masks are all passive in nature, i.e., simply act as air filters for the nasal passage and/or mouth. This paper presents a new “active mask” paradigm, in which the wearable device is equipped with smart sensors and actuators to both detect the presence of airborne pathogens in real time and take appropriate action to mitigate the threat. The proposed approach is based on a closed-loop control system that senses airborne particles of different sizes near the mask and then makes intelligent decisions to reduce their concentrations. The system communicates with the user via a smart phone application that provides various alerts, including the need to recharge and/or decontaminate the mask prior to reuse. The application also enables a user to override the on-board control system and manually control the mist generator if necessary. As an implementation step, working of a “smart mask” is demonstrated on wooden circuital-board.