The Coronavirus pandemic has led to many governments and health advisory boards to mandate the use of face masks. Many nations already had the culture of wearing regular masks, but the N95 compliant standards are the ones that best protect against the recent outbreak. Now, Huami, a known smart wearables maker, is making its own N95 masks, but ones that are compatible with the face unlock on your smartphones.

In recent times, biometric security in various forms has taken center stage for smartphone security. One of the most popular ones, especially in flagship devices, is the face unlock feature. Unfortunately, many smartphones are not compatible with the surgical mask or even the N95 masks. These handsets require certain facial cues or markers that it has registered for its user, which are interfered by the said masks.

However, Huami, the brand known for the Amazfit lineup, is working on a new face mask that can work around this problem. Earlier this month, the company had revealed that it had started working on a new endeavor named “Project uSmile.” The primary objective of this project was to ease the effects of social distancing. In other words, bring out the emotions/facial expressions one would normally witness in their lives.

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Project uSmile did not have a particular date of arrival but Huami has now shared concept images of the protective mask that feature a replaceable N95 filter. The name of the project is now dubbed as “Aeri” and its goal is to have a transparent body to allow for facial expressions to be observable. Thus, the added bonus of face unlock also working with this new mask is another great positive aspect.

Looking at the images shared, the wearable has a translucent frame with an anti-fog cover. It has a replaceable filter pad alongside a ventilation fan and a built in UV light for added disinfection. Other finer details can also be seen and the new Huami face mask offers some pretty interesting features in a very “social” and unimpeded design. These masks will are flexible, and will fit tightly around your face. One can charge them will be through a USB Type C port.

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Vivo initially planned to launch its V19 smartphone in India on March 26 but the launch was later shifted to April 3. Now, the company officially announces in a statement that is delaying the launch of V19 and other new products in the country indefinitely amid the current COVID-19 situation. Further, it also announced plans to help the country fight the pandemic.

As per the statement given by Vivo, the company will be now focusing its time and resources towards coronavirus relief efforts in India. It also mentions that it will be soon donating surgical and N95 masks to doctors and healthcare workers in the country. Also, it says that it is already in touch with the government to determine the need for supplies and will try to help wherever it can. Additionally, the company also urges the people of India to stay indoors and follow social distancing as much as they can.

Vivo is not the only smartphone company to offer help in India due to coronavirus outbreak. Only yesterday, Xiaomi India announced its donation of lakhs of masks to state governments and hospitals across the country. Also, the company mentioned it will shut down its premises as per the orders issued by state / UT governments. On the other hand, Samsung, Oppo, LG, and even Vivo have also temporarily shut down their production sites in the country.

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Huawei has been helping countries around the world affected by the coronavirus outbreak by donating necessary aids for the past few weeks. The new country added to this increasing list is the Netherlands, which has so far received 200,000 masks from the Chiese telecom giant out of 800,000 proposed units.

Ever since the US Government imposed a ban on Huawei, Huawei has been utilizing every possible opportunity to win the hearts of the countries where they are present. As COVID-19 is taking over the world, they have been donating necessary aids like masks to the severely affected regions over the course of the last few weeks.

This time around, the Chinese smartphone maker has planned to donate a total of 800,000 FFP2 masks to the Netherlands. The first batch of 200,000 masks has already reached the country by air on Sunday, March 22nd. The masks (over million in numbers) donated by different companies are being incorporated in a single place from where they are being supplied to hospitals, home care organizations, nursing homes, mental health and mental health institutions, disability care organizations and other care institutions based on requirements.

Huawei has been busy sending out aid whenever possible amidst the global pandemic especially to the European countries where they have a long history of partnership in establishing mobile networks and selling phones.

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Manu Kumar Jain, the Global Vice President of Xiaomi and Managing Director of Xiaomi India announced on Twitter that his company will be donating lakhs of N95 masks to state governments and hospitals across India. Also, he assured that his company has taken necessary measures towards sanitation in their stores, offices, service centers, and manufacturing plants all over the country to tackle the spread of coronavirus.

Xiaomi has already donated an unknown number of masks to various countries where they operate over the past few weeks. Now, as the COVID-19 outbreak has begun in India, which is the company’s largest market outside China, it has imported lakhs of N95 masks to the country. As per Manu Janin, the head of Xiaomi India, it will be donating these masks to government hospitals, state police, and a number of state / UT governments such as Karnataka, Punjab, and Delhi. Additionally, the company will be also donating hazmat suits to doctors at a few hospitals like AIMS and St. Johns.

Further, the company has also canceled business travels, external meetings, and even asked their office employees to work from home and maintain social distancing amidst the current situation. Also, Xiaomi India has introduced new ‘Delivery on Call’ service to let customers order their favorite products from nearby Mi Home retail stores. Likewise, the company’s 2,000+ service centers across the country will only let in 4 customers at a time via an online token system. Plus all the employees at stores, as well as service engineers, will be provided with protective gear.

Besides that, Mr. Jain also assures that all the products manufactured and shipped by his company are safe as their manufacturing plants and operational warehouses follow high standards of caution of hygiene. He also says that all the facilities of the company will follow the lockdown orders issued by state and UT governments.

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Huawei Technologies has pledged to donate 500,000 masks to medical institutions in Japan. As per a report by Kyodo News, the firm has already contributed the first batch of 200,000 masks to two university hospitals in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Further, the remaining masks have been planned to be donated to other regions in the country. In other news, the company has also announced to send medical equipment to Ireland, the second European country to receive medial supplies fro them company after Italy.

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The telecom giant Huawei is not the only Chinese firm to donate medical supplies to foreign countries. Previously, Lenovo, Alibaba, Xiaomi, Oppo, and others have contributed so far for the greater good. Wang Jianfeng, chairman of Huawei Japan said that he hopes to help the Japanese people get through difficult times. It is worth noting that even Japan helped China when the coronavirus outbreak began two months back.

Apart from Japan, Huawei has sent relief aids to Italy and has now even announced to donate ‘personal protective equipment’ and ‘technological equipment’ to Ireland in a statement. David Kenny, the deputy chief executive of Huawei Ireland said that COVID-19 knows no border or nationality and everyone is in this together. He further said that Huawei is operating its business in Ireland for 15 years and thus it will do everything it can do to help as it is doing in other European countries. He added that the company’s donations will help the people working on the frontline as well as in the ICT department for video conferencing.

With that being said, the precise number of units and shipping methods are yet to be determined, however, Mr. Kenny assures that his company has teams in both China and Dublin working to bring the equipment as quickly as possible.

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COVID-19, that originated from the Wuhan province of China has now spread across the world affecting over 150K individuals. Many organizations have come forward since the pandemic initially escalated to offer help by donating necessary supplies. Recently, Chinese tech giants like Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Oppo donated masks and other medical equipment to the severely affected countries.

Earlier this month, Xiaomi donated FFP3 surgical masks to the Italian Civil Protection Department as it is the most affected country by coronavirus after China. A few days back, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba announced he will donate 2 million masks to European countries starting with Belgium, which will be the first to receive the shipments. Further, after joining Twitter, he used his first tweet to announce donations of 500,000 testing kits and 1 million masks to the United States.

And today, Oppo announces that it has donated 300,000 masks to five severely affected countries other than China. The smartphone maker has donated FFP3 as well as N95 masks to Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and Japan. The company also said that its local teams are working with government departments, non-governmental organizations, and hospitals to donate masks to people who are in need such as medical professionals. Oppo also added that one-third of the total masks will be donated to Milan, Italy alone, which is currently the most affected city outside China.

Chinese tech companies so far, have not only donated masks but other requirements like logistics, robots, software, and drones to the coronavirus-struck regions.

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