turn your mask smart and monitor your health with FaceBit

FACEBIT IS LIKE FITBIT BUT FOR YOUR FACE

northwestern university engineers have unveiled the FaceBit — a new smart sensor platform to make face masks smart. the system is made up of a lightweight, quarter-sized sensor that uses a tiny magnet to attach to any N95, cloth or surgical face mask.

while wearing it, FaceBit can monitor the user’s health and sense the heartbeat through the face.

TO MAKE YOUR MASK SMART, JUST CLIP THE SENSOR WITH A MAGNET INTO IT

to make your mask smart, simply clip-on the sensor with the magnet onto the mask and start wearing it. the sensor transmits real-time data to the smartphone app wirelessly, which can in turn alert users to problems when they arise. powered by a tiny battery, the device has the capability to harvest energy from a variety of sources, including the user’s breath.

‘we wanted to design an intelligent face mask for health care professionals that does not need to be inconveniently plugged in during the middle of a shift,’ said northwestern’s josiah hester, who led the device development. ‘we augmented the battery’s energy with energy harvesting from various sources, which means that you can wear the mask for a week or two without having to charge or replace the battery.’

FaceBit can sense the user’s real-time respiration rate, heart rate and mask wear time, as well as its measuring fit. the data is transferred to the app which shows a dashboard of real-time health monitoring. if there’s an issue — elevated heart rate, a leak in the mask, etc. — the app alerts the user. physiological data like fatigue, physical health status and emotional state can also be predicted.

‘FaceBit provides a first step toward practical on-face sensing and inference, and provides a sustainable, convenient, comfortable option for general health monitoring for COVID-19 frontline workers and beyond,’ hester concluded. ‘I’m really excited to hand this off to the research community to see what they can do with it.’

powered by a tiny battery, the device has the capability to harvest energy from a variety of sources, including the user’s breath