Futuristic Helmet Has Its Own HEPA Filter and Fan | Hacker News Reader

Futuristic Helmet Has Its Own HEPA Filter and Fan

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27 pointsevo_980 comments

I feel like I’m reading a repeat of dismisive comments of how goofy masks are a year ago. So far, almost all the comments are focusing on appearance rather than effectiveness.

The benefits of a PAPR include far better filtration than a surgical mask or even an N95 respirator (edit: inexplicably the BioVYZR only uses KN95 filters though https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/biovyzr-venture-out-breat...), better tolerance to leaks, and better comfort for people who find masks uncomfortable.

For a $15 (in quantity) DIY version of a PAPR which uses pulmonary function testing (PFT) filters, see https://viralhelmets.medium.com/15-viral-helmet-version-of-a... and instructions at https://www.viralhelmets.com/.

Thanks for the link. I run viralhelmets.com and a few people came and visited the site based on google analytics. Looking at the log files, I found this backlink.

One of my favorite YouTube channels did a "review" of this, his humor is mostly dry but I thought this video was hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1ZYWvUh28s

Tradeoffs noted in the article:

With no mention about how sound travels through the device (maybe through the cloth lining at the back), I’m guessing the wearer would have to constantly be on the verge of a shouting match in order to be heard. Even though it looks relatively easy to take off, I’m sorry for the folks out there who suffer from the regular runny nose.

To that I offer that this device will be a greenhouse in the summer.

I can't say anything about this mask that has a ton of cloth, but we had people wearing the http://bunnypapr.org in New York City summer. They did fine.

There is a fan blowing 30 to 60 liters per minute through the bag/volume. This is like a cool breeze if you aim it at the skin.

In the winter, you have to aim it at the shell and not the skin because you'd freeze otherwise. But, mostly these are worn indoors.

We'll eventually become the Quarians in the Mass Effect game series.

But I'd say these looks cool, and they must be an improvement for those with hearing disabilities and need to do lipreading.

Cool thing would be to design voice communication for this thing with airbuds and stereo microphones for the wearer, and inside microphone, outside speakers and some clever filtering and processing so the voice sounds good from outside and to the wearer.

Here ya go. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/razers-n95-voice-boo...

What kind of idiot would actually wear this - other than the finance bros this is intentionally marketed towards?

SF tech bros.

I shaved my beard at the beginning of the pandemic so I could wear a properly fitting particulate respirator. If something like this had been available, I might have been able to avoid that. PAPRs were about $1000 at the time and I figured I should leave those for medical professionals and industrial users who had more of a need.

Why the mocking for people who want to protect themselves?

Forget about the mocking of people that want to protect themselves, why on earth would people mock someone that wants to protect others?

Normal masks don't protect the wearer much at all according to tests done in Denmark on 3000 people. However it might lower the spreading if done right. But that was harder to test with a control group offcourse.

I still can't fathom why people would risk a deadly respiratory illness to save... a beard. I broke out laughing when I was reading a 3m respirator review on Amazon from someone with a beard that was verbatim "works great with thick beard, just have to spread half a tub of vaseline on my face to achieve near air-tight seal".

The people making these products are grifters, and bad grifters at that being this late in the game.

I'd wear it, particularly when I have to start commuting by bus again. It looks a lot more comfortable than a mask and (supposedly) gives better filtration.

If I couldn't work from home, I would seriously consider buying one. My province has a mandatory mask order, but when I take public transit, there is always at least one person not wearing any mask and 5 people with masks below their nose. Fortunately I don't have to take transit often because I work from home.

199$ is way cheaper than the cost of a car and would allow me to take transit with greater piece of mind. But then again, it is cold here, and I am not sure whether and how well this product avoids fogging. So maybe not.

Finance bros and tech bros have money to waste.

I suspect mask fatigue is going to have most people going maskless by summer.

> Goodbye Masks?

Absolutely not. Even if these catch on, masks being cheap and accessible has been a huge boon for getting them rolled out quickly. They can be made from household materials, can be disposable, and never need to be charged.

Because so much of the pandemic is affecting lower-income parts of society disproportionately, this would only replace masks for people with money to burn.

The problem is most masks don't actually protect the wearer. If we had them in sufficient quantity, the public health advice would be to wear fit-tested N95 or better particulate respirators.

There's plenty enough KN95 masks that the message can be to use them.

There's plenty of imported KN95 masks of various brands for sale but the real questions is which ones meet the KN95 standard and which don't?

It's a fair question.

I think resistance to air flow is probably enough to evaluate whether a given package is better than cloth masks though (if the KN95 resists flow, probably better).

Right, which is why it's so vital that cloth masks be trivially easy and cheap/free, so that I can be confident that everyone around me has access to them

That was that thinking in April, but more careful studies are showing that wearer protection is quite high. And that bandanas and neck gaiters do actually offer reasonable protection.

Here's the preprint from Linsey Marr who is considered by many a leader in aerosol risk.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.20233353v...

Can we get a HUD on this?

A realtime hud with audio might be the only feature that would convince me to wear something like this, and even then it better be realllly useful.

As funny as it looks, I would totally wear one. People suck. They don’t wear their masks correctly and don’t care about about the risk of others. If this can help lower the risk of me bringing covid to my high risk family members, fuck others and their judgment. I rather look ridiculous and be safe.

My biggest problem with masks is my glasses fogging up. I am at the end of my rope - I am looking into adding powered heating elements around the rims. There has to be some other way.

Perhaps the glass of the helmet could be formed like a lens, so you do not need glasses underneath?

Where on a lenses your eyes focus through matters (That why you need IPD to make glasses) Corrective lenses would be difficult to integrate so far from the eyes.

I hear your pain. And if use something with a stronger nose bridge like a KN95 or N95, it pushes your glasses out a small amount that make me slightly dizzy.

There are anti-fogging sprays available - a spray is good for a few days. (Of course this is a worse solution than making that seal air-tight)

Where does the water vapor go? It condenses into droplets then skates back and forth along the bottom centimeter of plexiglass? That would be disgusting to look at. Or maybe it absorbs into the cloth hood/neck piece? That way when the user pulls it up off their head they get to squeegee their face with their own cold saliva. Sounds awesome!

It just forms a thin film instead of forming larger droplets. It’s no less or more disgusting than having fog in the first place.

I had this problem pre-pandemic when I wanted to avoid glare but also not freeze my face off while walking to work. The solution was ski goggles-they isolate the lense from your breath.

If your glasses are fogging up, the mask is leaking around your nose or cheeks.

That is only a concern for medical grade masks. Most masks that people wear are to slow down the air, not filter the air.

It is also a concern for people whose glasses fog up.

This is not technically true (but often true).

Water vapor is a gas and is much smaller than the "leaks" of particles. A perfectly sealed filter (like an elastomeric mask with high fit factor) will still release a ton of H20.

EVIDENCE: The exhaust from PAPRS and viralhelmets.com has a ton of moisture.

I used to have the same problem. My solution is that a use a foam tape and put that in the inside of the mask on the area around my nose. The uper area of the mask is air tight and therefore no fogged glases. It looks like that but slimmer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CBIFD

Product idea alert

Prior art: tape

What about the solution that divers use to keep their diving mask from fogging up?

Most defog is just a soap film, and many divers including myself just use baby shampoo diluted in water. Store-bought defog is expensive and doesn't really work any better.

However, when diving you leave your defog wet (hence the baby shampoo so your eyes don't get irritated) after a quick dunk in water to rise off the excess. A coating that dries will be very different, although I am sure they sell it somewhere!

I've heard of people using Rain-X on their masks, but never tried that before. Maybe it'll work on glasses too!

Try using a plaster (to-american: band-aid) to ensure your nose bridge is clamped properly to your nose. Works quite well.

With my cloth mask, I pull it up under my glasses, and let me glasses hold the seal. Just make sure your mask is big enough to still cover your face after you pull it up this high.

not sure how well they work but I've seen that rubbing them with dryer sheets have been posed as a solution for fogging.

Wouldn’t two masks be just as effective?