There were a ton of mask innovations in 2020 as we saw masks made from bacteria, masks that sanitize the air around them, and masks that translate languages. Not to be outdone, 2021 has now introduced to us a mask that enables you to make phone calls.
As Wired puts it:
“Surely we’ve all had the experience over the past 10 months of trying to take a phone call while wearing a protective face mask, and sounding garbled the whole time. (And if you haven’t been wearing a face mask out in public, well, you should.) Hong Kong–based electronics company Binatone thinks it has a solution.
A product called MaskFone—which was teased last fall but is making its ‘official debut’ during CES this week—combines a machine-washable fabric mask with an N95 filter, a built-in microphone, and attached earbuds, so you can pop them in as needed and experience clearer-sounding phone calls. If you don’t want earbuds dangling alongside your mask when they’re not in use, you can attach them to the mask’s magnetized cable clip. And if you sync the mask to Binafone’s mobile app, Hubble Connected, you can bark your Alexa or Google Assistant commands directly into your mask.”
As unnecessary as this probably is it’s also a lot better than the alternative I’ve been seeing: people taking off their masks in order to facilitate calls. This is the world we find ourselves in now. One in which we risk our lives to do simple tasks. So, if this is going to be our new normal we might as well make it fit our needs.
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