Need Some Face Time?
The Qudi Mask 2 is an animated face mask with LED expressions and speech-syncing sensors, but what exactly you can use it for is uncertain.
Since its release, the Apple Vision Pro has taken a lot of heat for its appearance. Sure, the spatial computing concept may be interesting, and the device may offer a lot of very useful features, but the idea of wearing those giant goggles all day is just not very appealing to most people. Few people want to hide their face behind a big, silly mask, especially when they are interacting with other people. It is just plain unnatural to communicate with this type of barrier.
The team over at Qudi would clearly disagree with the negative feedback that devices like the Vision Pro have received. They have recently designed an animated face mask called the Mask 2 that covers the entire face and replaces it with a simplistic, yet emotive, pixelated representation of a face. At first blush, it seems like an odd sort of a product — it is far more obtrusive than the Vision Pro (yes, that is possible it turns out!), yet it offers almost none of the functionality. No spatial computing to see here, folks.
What you do get with the Mask 2 looks something like a paintball mask. But rather than being transparent, the eyes and mouth are covered with opaque black shiny plastic. Below these surfaces are arrays of LEDs, which can be controlled to simulate low-resolution facial expressions. The mask also contains sensors that allow the mouth to move as the wearer speaks, or change the expression to match their own. Simple gestures can also trigger a variety of visual effects.
The Qudi Mask 2 is actually quite visually appealing and contains some cool tech. They could be a lot of fun at a costume party, to be sure, but using them in everyday life does not seem very realistic. Perhaps they could be used for reasons of privacy — but it is hard to imagine these masks not drawing a lot of attention and defeating that purpose.
The real-world use cases for these masks may be unclear, but if you are looking for a new toy you might want to check out the Kickstarter campaign. The rewards start at $129 which beats the pants off of a pair of Vision Pro goggles.
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