Amplifying Doctors' Voices in the Fight Against COVID-19
In response to the shortage of N95 medical masks in early 2020, the Prakash Lab at Stanford University led development of a novel face mask called Pneumask for use in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.
In the News
- Stanford has made a reusable mask from scuba gear — and it’s shipping it to the front lines of the pandemic | The Washington Post
- Stanford researchers turn thousands of full-face snorkel masks into reusable PPE for hospital employees | The Stanford Daily
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This App
One downside of the mask is that it severely muffles the voice of the user, thereby inhibiting communication and requiring the user to strain their voice to communicate with others in a noisy environment. In order to help sound travel past the mask, we created a mobile app to relay audio from a Bluetooth microphone inside the mask to speakers outside the mask. Sound can either be played on the phone’s internal speakers or through speakers connected to the device’s wired headphone jack.
The app also provides links to the Pneumask project website with information on safety procedures.
Using the App
- Connect phone to a Bluetooth device with a microphone. We recommend using cheap Bluetooth headphones, which can be put inside a sterile plastic bag, and placing them inside the face compartment of the snorkel mask.
- (Optional, for extra amplification) Connect an external speaker to the phone’s wired headphone jack using an aux cord. If you do not do this, the phone will use its internal speakers.
- Open the app.
- Click “Start” to begin relaying audio from the microphone to the speaker.
- You may now turn off the phone’s screen or switch to another app if you would like. If you need to switch speakers at any point, click “Stop,” do any plugging/unplugging, and then click “Start.”
- Click “Stop” end relaying audio.