Smart Mask – Wearable IoT Solution for Improved Protection and Personal Health

The use of face masks is an important way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we envision the Smart Mask, an IoT supported platform and ecosystem aiming to prevent and control the spreading of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses. The integration of sensing, materials, AI, wireless, IoT, and software will help gathering of health data and health-related event detection in real time from the user as well as from their environment. In larger scale, with the help of AI-based analysis for health data it is possible to predict and decrease medical costs with accurate diagnoses and treatment plans, where comparison of personal data to large-scale public data enables drawing up a personal health trajectory, for example. Key research problems for smart respiratory protective equipment are identified in addition to future research directions.