A team of researchers at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg, Austria, created the ‘AirRes Mask,’ a mouth-covering mask intended for virtual reality worlds. The AirRes Mask is multifunctional. It covers the wearer’s mouth, effectively muting them to the surrounding physical world, while still allowing for the insertion of a microphone for voice capture in the virtual world.
The second feature and main innovation in the AirRes Mask, though, is its air control system. The AirRes Mask uses breathing resistance as output modality, allowing for complex analysis and control of breathing. This means the tool could be used to simulate the real experience of playing a wind instrument in VR, while also stimulating scenes in games where a character is unable to breath well. It is important to note that the device does have a “killswitch” of sorts that allows the user to breath normally when required.
Image Credit: Markus Tatzgern
