Come Tuesday, October 13, Xiaomi India plans to expand its Mi Lifestyle product lineup. A teaser shared on Twitter by the official Xiaomi India account hints that the product is a face mask.

Breathe safe, live healthy.

Coming to protect you.
Unveiling on 13th October.

RT if you know what's coming. pic.twitter.com/nTALg5Cgxx

— Mi India #Mi10TSeries5G (@XiaomiIndia) October 11, 2020

The mask launching on Tuesday won’t be the first Xiaomi has announced in India. Back in January 2019, it launched the Mi AirPOP PM2.5 Anti-Pollution Mask. The mask is currently listed as out of stock on the Xiaomi India website. Also, the Mi AirPOP PM2.5 Anti-Pollution Mask doesn’t protect against coronavirus, so there is a chance this new mask does and meets the KN95 standard.

Following the pandemic, we have seen a few manufacturers enter into the mask production business. Apple now designs and produces its own masks for its employees and LG announced a rechargeable mask back in August at IFA 2020. However, Xiaomi has been making masks for more than four years now. In China, which has several polluted cities, it offers a variety of masks for both adults and kids. We do not think the mask launching on Tuesday is for kids but we won’t be surprised if it announces one for children in the near future.

UP NEXT: N95 face masks might soon be rechargeable, reducing waste

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Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, N95 masks have become one of the most sought after commodities in the world. This holds especially true for many essential workers. However, this led to the problem of a huge amount of N95 masks also being disposed of, leading to waste, but that might soon change with a more effective rechargeable version.

According to a TechCrunch report, the new rechargeable N95 face masks have been proposed by researchers at Technion-IIT in Israel and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in India. N95 masks use both mechanical filtering and electrostatic filtering, through which particles are caught in the microscopic fibers and are attracted to static charged surfaces on the scale of microns.

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However, while this method has been proved to be very effective, it does not last. As with any charge, the electrostatic charge over time as more air and moisture passes over it. So while the mask can be cleaned, its effectiveness is lost as time passes. Thus, in a paper published in the Physics of Fluids journal, Dov Levine from Technion and Shankar Ghosh from Tata, showcases a method to possibly recharged said static charges to increase the masks’ life and effectiveness.

According to the researchers, “We find that the total charge deposited on the masks depends strongly on the charging time… with the pristine value almost reattained after a 60 min charge at 1000 V.” In other words, the filter was just required to be placed between two plate electrodes with the application of a strong electric field. While regular essential workers cannot be expected to dismantle and charge their masks over and over again a dedicated team could be established, or better yet, a mask with a rechargeable battery can be made.

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Face masks have become a necessity for everyone since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, for those who own a phone with support for face unlock, unlocking their devices have proved difficult. The reason is that more than half of the face is covered when you put on a mask, so face unlock is impossible unless…….you have the Amazfit Aeri mask.

Huami to the rescue!

When news of folks having difficulties unlocking their devices first began to surface, Huami announced it was working on a mask that will allow users to unlock their device using Face ID without having to pull off the mask. The Chinese manufacturer has now shared drawings of what the mask looks like.

Amazfit Aeri Design

The Amazfit Aeri has a transparent design. Huami says it will be made of an anti-fog material, making it easier to unlock your phone via Face ID. The mask will also have built-in ultraviolet lights for self-disinfection which work when you plug in a USB Type-C cable to the side.

The mask also uses removable air-filters that can last for six weeks before replacement, thanks to the ultraviolet disinfection. N95 masks are effective for just 8 hours before replacement, so being able to use a filter for more than a month is definitely good news. It is important to mention that we do not know if Amazfit’s Ares mask will meet the N95 standard as Huami didn’t mention it.

The Amazfit Aeri will also have a modular design that allows for adding accessories such as an eye shield or a fan so users can wear it while exercising and not worry about suffocation.

Long wait ahead

Huami says they have begun making prototypes of the Amazfit Aeri but it will not be available commercially for at least 6 months to a year. That is a pretty long time to wait but we won’t be surprised if another Chinese manufacturer beats them to it by launching a similar product.

While there is no info on the price, Huami has said that it plans to make it as affordable as its other products. We expect a price tag not less than $50 when the Aeri mask launches.

UP NEXT: New Amazfit Ares teaser posters show off different watch faces

(Source)

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Razer, the company known for making gaming products, has revealed its plan to help people in the Singapore fight against the COVID-19. The company said that it will deploy 20 face masks vending machines across the country by the end of this month to distribute millions of masks for free.

It’s noteworthy that the company’s global operations are based in Singapore. The company’s CEO CEO Min-Liang Tan said that “Razer will continue our endeavours in supporting Singapore to be self-sufficient for face masks as a nation.”

To pick up a mask from the vending machine, the company says that users will have to download its digital wallet app and scan a QR code. Razer is already making masks and is now planning to double that production.

The company’s plan is to give all Singaporean adult residents one free surgical mask, which adds up to about 5 million in total. Once the program kicks off, more locations may be added as per the requirement.

The response from Razer comes as the country is experiencing an alarming second wave of coronavirus infections. It now has more than 23,822 confirmed cases, up from just a few hundred in March.

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However, the company is also facing criticism on social media for the requirement of downloading Razer app to get face mask. People are suggesting that the company is trying to pick up more users for its fintech platform Razer Pay.

Responding to the criticism, Min-Liang Tan said that having users scan QR from the app “is the only way we’ll be able to ensure there’s no free for all on the masks … We’re funding this completely ourselves and would like to ensure there’s no fraud.”

Razer said on April 24th that it’s already shipped more than 1 million of those masks all over the world. With plan of offering 5 million masks for free in Singapore, the company is also partnering with plastic manufacturer Sunningdale Tech to up its production to 10 million masks a month.

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