Human Inventiveness: Hacking Covid-19

In time of crisis a smile goes a long way.

The LEAF Transparent Face Mask keeps you and others safe and connected while uniquely letting people see your facial expressions. It is the world’s first FDA-registered, clear mask to have N99-standard air filtering abilities as well as a self-purifying feature, thanks to a built-in UV-C light.

As you breathe, air passes through the filters giving you 99% pure air. Its shell is made of optical grade, soft, fire-retardant, reusable, self-defogging and UV proof Silicone and the design is inspired by nature and the natural transpiration of leaves. It is minimalist, inobtrusive, and practical - allowing face recognition to unlock smartphones.

The LEAF enables us to reclaim our identities, while not adding to the recycling threat connected to disposable masks.

Source: www.leaf.healthcare

The GGD test center in Amsterdam is experimenting with a breathalyzer test for the coronavirus developed by Leiden company Breathomix. The test can quickly determine that someone doesn't have Covid-19. The Breathomix breathalyzer test detects particles that people exhale. Over the past weeks more than 1,800 people were tested with the device at GGD Amsterdam's test center. About 1,350 of then got a definite negative result. The test takes about 45 seconds - 30 seconds of blowing into the device, and a few seconds for the results.

The device was able to rule out a coronavirus infection with certainty in about 75 percent of cases. The other quarter of test subjects' results were uncertain, and they were sent in for a cotton swab test. According to the researchers, the large-scale application of this device can take a lot of pressure off the test centers, by sending negative people home without them having to undergo a swab test. They can then immediately go back to school or work.

Source: Eva Faché

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Take one doctor, one engineer and one casual family dinner table conversation and what have you got? A ‘game changing’ system to clean and decontaminate 80,000 N95 masks a day.

The masks are steeped in concentrated hydrogen peroxide vapor inside a chamber (such as a repurposed cargo-shipping container) for about two and a half hours. It then takes a couple of hours to clear any residual gas in the chamber before the masks are ready to be reused. What’s more, they can go through the system 20 times without degrading.

At present, the system is only authorized to decontaminate N95 respirators, but the technology has the potential to be used on other medical equipment like gowns and face shields.

Other methods of decontamination, such as ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, are also showing promising results. 

Source: NBC News

The ‘C-Mask’, invented by a Japanese start-up, is the perfect way to stay connected during the pandemic. It is a smart mask worn over your regular fabric mask that uses Bluetooth to connect to smartphones. It allows you to turn speech into text messages without holding your phone to your face or removing your face mask to make calls.

The ‘C-Mask’ can also translate from Japanese into eight other languages and amplify the user’s voice. So now, you can continue using your phone outside without increasing the risk of catching COVID-19. 

Source: Donut Robotics

Covid-19 thrives on public surfaces. And there’s 17 times the amount of bacteria on a lift button than on a toilet seat! With Sparchless, created by Indian company Techmax Solution, you’ll never have to touch a lift button again, either inside or outside the lift.

Once Sparchless is installed by the current lift button or elevator panel, a wave of the hand or the point of a finger does the rest.

Source: TechMax Solution

The new BYEVID app, developed by Stockholm’s Chris Mortimer, allows drinkers to book their pub visit online, ahead of time, or scan a QR code once in the bar allowing drinkers and owners to see if the venue has reached its safe capacity (this can be varied in accordance with an individual county’s rules.) It also gives access to information about pub coronavirus cleanliness.

Source: Unsplash Patrick Tomasso

StrikeForce, from Xenex Disinfection Services, is an innovative disinfection service that destroys the novel COVID-19 virus in two minutes.

Using germ-zapping robots with xenon lamps that generate bursts of high intensity, broad-spectrum (200-315nm) ultraviolet (UV) light that’s more intense than sunlight, viruses, bacteria, and spores are quickly deactivated without damaging materials or equipment.

StrikeForce is perfect for hospitals, carehomes, military installations, cruise ships and all businesses and organisations looking for strategies to combat the virus within their facilities.

Source: Xenex

Microsoft is combining existing and new resources from its LinkedIn and GitHub units and making them available to anyone wishing to upskill or retrain in the economic job uncertainty of these COVID times.

Microsoft plans to use data to identify in-demand jobs and the skills needed for them and then provide free access to learning content to help people acquire the required skills. Then they will deliver low-cost certifications and free job-seeking tools. The aim is to bring more digital skills to 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year.

Source: Microsoft

In an effort to alleviate the mask shortage during the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers at the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering in Technion University have invented a reusable face mask that can self-clean simply by plugging into a mobile phone charger.

The power source can heat an inner layer of carbon fibers to 70 degrees C, more than enough to destroy the virus, and the disinfection process is complete in only 30 minutes. With an estimated 5 billion masks needed in 2020/2021, this alternative offers an economic and environmentally friendly solution.

Source: Reuters

One of the main challenges for beauty retailers during COVID-19 is the provision of safe, hygienic testing stations at the point of sale. Now, Meiyume offers a series of battery or AC powered touchless sampling testers for skincare products and fragrances.

The new device is motion-activated and can dispense any type of fragrance or liquid skincare product from all sizes of existing tester bottles. So, there’s no need for new packaging or to change supply chains.

Source: MIA Studio / Shutterstock.com 

Anti-viral fashion is becoming the new big thing in combating COVID-19. The latest player is US technical outerwear company G95 who have developed a light-weight hoodie with a built-in anti-bacterial mask to protect against coronavirus.

The Biohoodie, as it is known, can filter out more germs than an N95 mask (95% of airborne particles.) Its unique double system and added nanofiltration layer claims to block out a phenomenal 99.75 per cent of particles. All the G95 gear is designed to look, feel, function and wash like normal apparel but with protection built in. It takes 50 washes before the system’s efficiency begins to decrease.

Source: G95

Other than travel and hospitality, fewer industries have suffered like The Arts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It took one anxious artist to use the more practical side of his brain to come up with a genius idea to help artists generate an income during lockdown. Matthew Burrows invented The Artist Support Pledge, a kind of global microeconomy that has generated around £48m in artists’ sales in three months. The Artist Support Pledge idea is quite simple. You post work on Instagram for no more than £200 and when you reach £1,000 worth of sales you have to buy another artist’s work.

It’s a proven case of ‘passing it on’. It has become so successful that Burrows is launching it as a not-for profit company with support from the Crafts Council. The initiative is open to all artists of any level, in any country and any age.

Source: Pete Jones

UVCcleansBox is the World's First portable UVC light box that can sterilize your mask anywhere, killing 99.99% of viruses and bacteria.

The ingenious design of the magnetic stick function means you can also attach it to decontaminate your closet, car, or phone easily and conveniently.

Source: UVC CLEANS  

Social isolation and depression amongst older adults, especially those who live alone, has always been a problem – even before the pandemic. To help combat this, the Association on Aging in New York (AgingNY), in partnership with robotic pet manufacturer Ageless Innovation, is distributing up to 1,100 robotic Joy for All Companion Pets to those most at-risk from loneliness. Comfort and companionship are so important during these extended times of quarantining, distancing and lack of human physical contact.

Robotic cats and pups are usually given to people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias as a form of calming pet therapy, but data has shown that using pets to decrease social isolation is highly successful with 70% of pilot participants reporting a decrease or significant decrease in isolation after one year. All Companion Pets can be therapeutic ‘members of the family’ during these isolating, confusing times. And you don’t even have to feed them.

Apple has added COVID-19 testing sites to its Apple Maps app across the U.S., covering all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The update provides testing locations including hospitals, clinics, urgent care facilities, general practitioners and pharmacies, as well as dedicated COVID-19 testing sites. It has already gone live and sits alongside other pandemic-prioritised search options in Maps– like grocery stores and food deliveries.

Apple has also updated its new Mobility Trends website, providing free access to data about how people are getting around their cities and regions during the COVID-19 crisis.

This data has been made available to help everyone (including governments and transportation authorities) make better sense of the impact the ongoing pandemic is having.

Source: Apple Maps

When COVID-19 pulled the plug on practically every trade show and corporate event overnight, there were hundreds of empty venues echoing to the sound of lost revenue. That’s when Massachusetts company T3 Expo got busy. Called on by previous client New York’s Javits Centre to help them transform the massive convention hall into an emergency COVID-19 hospital, T3 Expo put their nimble, organizational skills into action.

Within a day, T3 Expo had developed preliminary floor plans and production plans. Within three days the hospital was being assembled in what used to be exhibition space. It was a massive achievement, only made possible by the core skills that make all good events companies tick.

Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency

When people were instructed to start wearing face masks, lip-reading became impossible. Indonesian tailor Badaruddin and her husband found the perfect solution to help fellow hearing impaired and deaf people.

See-through masks. When orders dried up for their hand-made cushions, bed sheets and curtains, they followed online tutorial videos to work out how to produce their masks. They are now producing as many as two dozen see-through masks a day, in all sizes.

Source: AFP photo

Scientific studies have proved that COVID-19 patients with life-threatening inflammation of the lungs have a better chance of survival by being ventilated in the prone position. This improves both the blood circulation and oxygen exchange in the lungs.

With this in mind, Dutch company Life Science Business have created the ICU Fighter; the world’s first patented system to relieve ICU staff of having to manually turn patients several times a day. By using the ICU Fighter, patients can be lifted and turned electronically within 5 minutes, with the help of only 2 healthcare professionals as opposed to the 5 needed to turn them manually.

Deploying this system ensures that this complicated, time consuming and physically demanding action is now done swiftly, safely and cost-effectively.

Source: Cristel Boot

As social distancing rules have made it unviable for many restaurants to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic, one entrepreneurial restaurant in Amsterdam has come up with a novel solution. Mediamatic ETEN, a vegan restaurant at the arts center Mediamatic Biotoop, has set up individual heated greenhouses for customers to dine a deux.

Even contact between waiters and dinners is minimised, with servers using a long wooden board to serve diners seated inside the greenhouses. The restaurant calls the project Serres Séparées, which mean separate greenhouses in French. Let’s hope it flourishes.

Source: Willem Velthoven for Mediamatic Amsterdam

Who could have predicted that the Easybreath diving mask first invented by French company Décathlon for amateur divers would one day find its way into hospitals? When the shortage of masks in hospitals was made public, Décathlon stepped up to make their mask’s plans and technical information available so that the Easybreath could be adapted for purpose.

They also granted free license and non-commercial free exploitation agreements to selected third parties. Subsequently, several adaptations of the Easybreath mask have been produced.

The first (by Italian innovation company Isinnova) included a new component produced by 3D printing, designed to replace the Easybreath’s original snorkel and connect the mask to an artificial respirator.

Source: Isinnova

Tesla are offering their German manufacturing facility and assembly line knowledge to crank out much needed single-strands of mRNA molecules needed in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. The intention is to ultimately create mRNA micro-factories in conjunction with the German vaccine development company CureVac, designed to be mobile and shipped across the world.

This means that Covid-19 vaccines could then be produced in millions of doses simultaneously, globally. CureVac and Tesla also hope to develop mobile mRNA printers that can be fed vaccine instructions and generate vaccines all around the world. Of course, this would include the Covid-19 vaccine that CureVac is currently developing, if it proves to be successful.

Source: Saul Martinez/Getty Images

Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. In the absence of enough respirators to go round every hospital for every patient during this COVID-19 pandemic, the once unthinkable may have to become a reality - and that is to connect multiple patients to a singular ventilator. A Belgian team of anesthesiologists, intensivists and ventilator engineers have tested circuits with added components to increase the safety, monitoring and control of pressure and flow for each patient on one ventilator.

All the proposed components are readily available in hospitals, can be bought in medical supply or plumbing stores, or can be printed in 3D. No added electronics or software are required and implementation is straightforward for experienced caretakers. Although, the ideal is still one patient one ventilator, this solution could be the difference between life and death.

Takataka means ‘waste’ in Swahili. And that is what start-up Takataka Plastics excel in. Namely, recycling the discarded plastics that are currently being burned or littered around Ugandan towns. Helped by a PhD student in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, the team at Takataka have created small machines that sort, shred, and melt the plastic so that it can be remade into construction materials.

Recently, they are using recycled plastics to create locally make reusable plastic face shields for medical workers fighting COVID-19 on the frontline. The company’s small close-knit family (many of whom are trauma and homelessness survivors) is now focused on COVID-19 and collecting plastic bottles from restaurants and plastic drip bags from hospitals to recycle into around 100 plastic face shields each day.

Takataka’s local recycling model can easily expand to other cities and towns where it doesn’t make economic sense to deliver waste to a recycling center somewhere else.

Source: Fiona Raguenez

Cash many not presently be king in a paranoid COVID world, but it is still being widely circulated, especially in emerging economies. Given how bacterially contaminated money can become, a money sanitiser is a great solution.

This device is detachable and customisable and operates from a universal USB plug. It has an upper and lower surface of UVC LED lamps that emit light evenly on both sides of the coins and notes, zapping any infection before the customer removes the money from the tray.

A digital display counts down 15 seconds until the money is safe to pick up.

Source: NOS

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up a world of unknowns for everyone. And with this comes anxieties and stress about futures, finance, security, health, education, homelessness and much more. There has never been a more critical time to take care of our mental health and wellbeing.

MindLine’s new website couldn’t have come at a better time. It helps users assess their wellbeing and matches them with various resources and forms of assistance if needed. The platform includes helplines, phone counseling, employment support, financial assistance, family and caregiving support, volunteer opportunities and coping strategies, as well as health and fitness tips.

Users can also learn more about their emotional wellbeing through a clinically validated self-assessment-based tool. MindLine is the full package.

Source: MindLine

When nine-year-old Stephen Wamukota from Kenyan was watching TV about ways to prevent catching coronavirus, he had a light bulb moment. Why couldn’t there be a washing machine that you didn’t have to touch? ‘Borrowing’ some pieces of wood his father had reserved for making a window frame, Stephen came up with a wooden hand-washing machine that tips a bucket of water by using a foot pedal.

His Dad, who repairs electronic goods for a living, helped finish it off. Stephen’s inventiveness was quickly recognized on Facebook and he has just been awarded the Presidential Order of Service Award. His local county governor has also promised to give him a scholarship to train as an engineer when he is old enough.

Source: BBC News

Aircraft interiors need a complete rethink if the public is to be reassured about air travel. Social distancing is their primary concern. UK seating designer Safran has created a retrofit kit that creates partitions around economy-class seats by leaving the middle seat of three vacant.

The concave padded shells (which are the same height as the seat) can be installed on 90% of economy seats, providing an added degree of protection and privacy.

Other designs include Ringfence, a removable partition that isolates neighbouring passengers, a pedal that allows you to recline your seat without touching any buttons and virus-proof coatings for armrests and tray tables.

Source: Safran

The rule of thumb given for washing your hands and stopping the spread of coronavirus is the time it takes you to sing Happy Birthday - twice. Roughly 30 seconds.

To make this easier, the soap and cosmetics retailer Lush has developed a soap that cleverly dissolves after 30 seconds of use. And it is being given out with every food order delivered by Deliveroo in the UAE. The company is now looking to expand the initiative further across the region into Kuwait, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.

Source: LUSH

Part of our ‘new normal’ has become to constantly disinfect and clean things. Our hands, doorknobs, surfaces, groceries, you name it, nothing’s safe! But one of the most contaminated things we all have is a mobile phone - actually covered in more bacteria than a toilet seat.

 Fear not, this smart looking conceptual toaster is here to make disinfecting your phone easy and fun. Instead of just wiping your phone down, pop it in the toaster to disinfect and recharge while you enjoy a bit of screen downtime. Then pick it up again when it pops out, squeaky clean.

It is still in development, but we assume the toaster uses UV light to disinfect and sanitise the phone, while wirelessly charging it.

Source: Lee Sungwook 

Japan-based company Bespoke has launched an artificial intelligence powered chatbot to advise travelers about the latest coronavirus updates. Passengers can ask the chatbot about health and virus-related issues, including symptoms, preventative measures and treatment procedures.

It can also share the latest news about restrictions, statistics, transmission rates and vital contact information. Government and health institutions can use Bebot to remind travelers about how to limit the spread of the virus.

Bebot offers information in English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese and can be accessed using any mobile device.

Source: Bespoke Inc./ Hand-out

The current recommended method for diagnosing COVID-19 is via a nasal and throat swab. However, with supplies in short measure, a wait time of two days for results and a false negative reading as high as 1 in 5, alternative large-scale COVID-19 screening methods are still being sought. Analysing a lung scan is one way. The SARS-CoV-2 virus damages lung tissue in a distinct way.

This shows up in chest CT scans and can differentiate COVID-19 pneumonia from more common forms of bacterial pneumonia. Researchers at Macau University of Science and Technology have used 532,000 CT scans to train their AI tools to identify the tell-tale lesions seen in COVID-19 patient lungs. In pilot studies at several Chinese hospitals, the AI model correctly diagnosed COVID-19 pneumonia at least 85% of the time.

However, challenges still remain when using CT scans for COVID-19 diagnosis. One is that a lot of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 may experience severe clinical symptoms such as cough and fever but have no biomarkers visible in their CT scans.

Source: Home / News & Opinion

If people can no longer go to the showroom, you can bring the showroom to them. Diesel are leading the way with Hyberoom, a virtual selling platform created by their parent company OTB. Designed to replicate Diesel’s physical Milan showroom, it features all Diesel’s products in 360-degree virtual displays and 2D close-ups, including the Spring and Summer 2021 Collections.

Diesel believes their new, benchmark virtual-store concept will be a solution for many other fashion brands as it not only provides a unique online retail experience, but also reduces the amount of clothing samples normally required to be carried at multiple physical stores.

Source: Diesel