Face Mask With Built-In Translator Is Necessity Giving Birth To COVID-19 Innovation
Built by Donut Robotics, the C-Mask can translate Japanese in eight other languages.
COVID-19 has forced us all to wear masks to help save ourselves and others from contracting the novel coronavirus.
However, wearing a mask comes with some really saddening drawbacks. Apart from not being able to emote properly with our face covered, users also face a problem of the voice getting muffled in the fabric.
Reuters
While this muffled voice doesn¡¯t really trouble us when speaking in a common language, it does impact a lot if you¡¯re trying to use voice recognition translation, with most phrases not getting recognised appropriately.
However, Donut Robotics have a fix for this, with their C-Mask. The mask is essentially an additional attachment that goes over your mask and has a passthrough for the elastic. It has an inbuilt microphone and a speaker which pairs with the phone using Bluetooth.
Reported first by Reuters, the C-mask tech-savvy face mask can be used to transcribe speech, take calls or translate Japanese into eight different languages with the help of Donut Robotics¡¯ proprietary app. The technology at play here is from its line of translator robots developed by Donut Robotics found on the airports, that got really popular. It took them only a month to adapt that into a smartphone app.
CEO Taisuke Ono, said in a conversation with Reuters, "We worked hard for years to develop a robot and we have used that technology to create a product that responds to how the coronavirus has reshaped society."
Reuters
To fund this particular project, Ono raised ?28 million ($260,000) for development by selling Donut Robotics shares through Japanese crowdfunding site Fundinno. ¡°We raised our initial target of ?7 million within three minutes and stopped after 37 minutes when we had reached ?28 million,¡± he said.
The C-mask is priced at $40 each which is approximately Rs 3,000. The company will initially be selling 5,000 C-Masks in Japan starting in the month of September. This will be then followed by selling C-mask in other markets like China, US and Europe.
