LG’s battery-powered face mask will “make breathing difficult”

Big Tech is here to save us from COVID-19! With every responsible, compassionate person wearing a mask nowadays, it seems inevitable that the term “wearable technology” will soon include regularly too complicated high-tech face masks. One of the first big tech companies out of the gate with a dubious useful product is LG. The “LG PuriCare Wearable Air Purifier” is a battery-powered face mask that the company says will “deliver fresh, clean air inside and out.”

The mask is really a little air purifier and has a combination of fan + HEPA filter on the left and right side. A “patented Respiratory Sensor” detects “the cycle and volume of the wearer’s breath and adjusts the dual three-speed fans accordingly.” Fans should automatically sync with your breathing by slowing down as you inhale and slowing down as you exhale, which LG says will “make breathing difficult.” (If you are breathing net at this time without difficulty, please visit your healthcare provider and / or local COVID-19 test center.)

The mask looks absolutely enormous in the heavy photoshop photo of LG. LG says that you “can carry the unit comfortably for hours on the side”, but that the 820mAh battery is only good for “eight hours of operation in low mode and two hours on high.” There’s no word on how much it waits. When it comes time to recharge your face mask, the included case will also disinfect the mask a bit with UV LED lights. There’s also an app – of course there’s an app – that alerts you when the mask filters need to be replaced.

Every tech company that sells coronavirus-related products deserves a huge amount of question marks and skepticism, and so far LG has not proven that its mask is effective or safe. LG’s press release actually makes no claims at all that the mask can help stop the transmission of the coronavirus, nor does it make any claims about the effectiveness of its filtering skills. The sales pitch is all about “clean air” and nothing else.

The CDC’s mask guidelines state: “Masks with exhalation valves or vents should NOT be worn to prevent the person wearing the mask from spreading COVID-19 to others”, which looks like holes in the theory of mask design at LG. A HEPA filter to be able to stop breathing particles (this is what a normal N95 mask does), but LG’s press release only says that the mask will “take in clean, filtered air “- it says nothing about filtering exhalations.

The mask is out of the fourth quarter in ‘select brands’, but you should probably just wear a normal, lighter, cheaper, more comfortable mask. Please wear a mask.