12° Mask - Transparent Mask

The 12° Mask is a transparent mask designed to safeguard the health and to offer a panoramic view of the wearer's facial expressions and other visual cues.

Everyone has to wear a mask to curb the spread of COVID-19. However, this presents an obstacle to hearing-impaired persons as wearing face masks prevents lip-reading and hamper their ability to communicate and receive information during the coronavirus pandemic. Other than that, service providers, such as doctors, counselors, polices, and social workers, rely on verbal and facial expressions to ensure their messages are delivered as accurately as possible.

However, most transparent face masks available fail to meet protection standards, and that semi-transparent face masks with anti-pathogen properties reflect and fog up. Also, the transparent surface area is not large enough to reduce the communication challenges of the users.

In view of these pain points, Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) develops a fully transparent face mask, namely 12° Mask. The development of the 12° Mask exemplifies the humanitarian technology approach since the design principle prioritizes the needs of neglected communities (such as the deaf and special education need students) and their service providers.