Fashion technology entrepreneur and influencer Chelsea Klukas revamped ordinary face masks by freeing them from the clutches of mundanity and mainstream. She is turning face masks from Covid-protective gear necessities to customizable canvasses.
People buying the face masks from her Lumen Couture LED Display mask line can use the connected app to display any message that they want to appear on their faces by merely speaking them out or drawing them!
What Can Klukas’ LED Face Mask Do?
The mask is made from basic fabric and comes with a removable LED panel and other technological components. It also comes with a free mobile app that has a blank page where users can type or draw whatever they want.
Those messages or pictures shall then appear across their faces on their mask! It also uses the respective device’s microphone to turn speech into text and display it on the mask. Chelsea Klukas claimed that the mask’s display is powered by a chargeable battery which has the potential to last for hours.
The face masks might be a new entry into the world of fashion, but Klukas is renowned for have been creating tech induced fashion clothes for decades now.
How did Chelsea Come Up With the Idea?
Chelsea told Voicebot in an interview, “It was way way back before wearable tech was a thing and immediately gained international attention because no one was doing anything like it. “The prototypes were like wearable art, they were extremely expensive and fragile.
Two years ago I started the line for festival wear and special events. but those all were canceled this year. The masks came about almost by accident. I was originally only making regular masks for some friends, but I had the components around and added them.”
Face Mask Festivity
Klukas is a product designer for Oculus, based in Seattle. She started out by filming a video showing people how to make their own face masks but was bombarded with requests asking her to make readymade, finished products instead.
She claims that she had the supply chain for both cloth and tech in place, and hence the whole process was quite a cakewalk. Her go-to tech manufacturer and Vietnamese tailor who make her clothing line for ages now were more than happy to get productive during this global halt.
She donated around $5,000 to the World Health Organization which she profited from the proceeds of selling the face masks. She is currently assembling them in her own workplace and shipping them directly, but is planning on opening up an Amazon store soon.
Early Bird Gets the Worm
Klukas also said, “Of course knockoffs are starting to show up on the market, so it’s a race against time there. I’m trying to get manufacturing costs down and looking at other forms of fulfillment to compete with the knockoffs.”
Developments In Tech-Infused Face Masks are Skyrocketing
Such technology isn’t news to us, as video game designer Tyler Glaeil was the first to share a DIY on how to make your own LED face mask. The internet went rampant with his invention, however, his LED face mask was only limited to smiles and O’s.
Basically, it just mimicked a talking mouth as the LED light lit up in a horizontal line and a circle. The user needed to click their tongue to light their LED face mask into a smile.
Another tech startup based in Japan called Donut Robotics devised a device where the face masks could translate the speech into various languages and broadcast it over a smart speaker.
Lumen Couture is already pretty famous when it comes to tech-infused fashion, but Klukas confessed that the masks were successful in attracting a larger client base.
This global pandemic might have been stagnant for most, but voice technology seems to be on a roll!
