Huami’s ‘Project Aeri’ N95 Masks Work with Face Unlock on Smartphones

Apr. 30, 2020

Face masksare being recommended by health-care professionals as a basic protective measure against direct exposure to coronavirus in public areas. With the increased adoption of face masks, people are complaining about the masks interrupting face unlock mechanism of modern smartphones. Taking this concern into consideration, smart wearables maker Huami, commonly known for itsAmazfit product lineup, has stepped up to work onN95 masks that don’t block face unlock from working.

Dubbed Project uSmile, the product under this initiative is still being developed and isnot available to buy right now. More than being able to use face unlock feature, Huami pitches the masks as a way to let people see the facial expressions and emotions while maintaining a safe distance.

As part of Project uSmile, the company’s first N95 mask is named ‘Aeri’. Huami has envisioned two sets of concept renders named Concept X and Concept Y and shared them withXDA-Developers.

Huami’s Aeri masks are said to be self-disinfectingwith a replaceable N95 filter. The company manages to disinfect the masks by using UV lights. According to the report, UV lights are activated when the mask is connected to the power supply through its USB-C port.

While as an idea, this sounds cool and feasible, manufacturing these masks now will be a challenge due to restrictions that caused disruptions in the supply chain. If at all the company manages to supply them, it will be interesting to see if Huami scales up the project to meet the increasing demand for face masks.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.