Home-made face mask uses LEDs to show you when someone is talking and smiling

The designer put instructions, and a link to the source code, in a blog post for people to make their own

A game designer has created a face mask with a voice activated panel and a series of LED lights .

When the wearer speaks, the 16 lights shine through the mask, giving the appearance of talking, while clicking the tongue can make the mask smile.

"I had a random idea for it," Tyler Glaiel, who built the mask, said to the BBC. "I was wondering if it existed, to have a face mask that just lighted up with mouth shapes and so I looked around online to see if there was anything I could feasibly buy to do this and there really wasn't anything there."

The components for the mask cost around £40, with the most expensive one being the flexible LED matrix into which the lights are inserted.

Glaiel used an Arduino Nano, a small microcomputer akin to the Raspberry Pi, to control how the lights react.

He also used some electrical tape, a small microphone, a 9V battery, and some electrical tape, according to a Medium post explaining how to build the mask at home.

The completed code was also posted on GitHub, through unless users purchase the specific items used by Glaiel it may require some editing before it will work seamlessly.

Glaiel stresses that the mask may not be safe or effective in stopping the spread of the coronavirus, and refers people to the CDC guidelines about using cloth masks.

“This is mostly meant as a novelty. Also please wash the mask (with the electronics removed) between uses,” he wrote in the Medium post.

The LED housing can be cleaned using ultraviolet light.

Glaiel said that he had been working the concept of the mask for a month, and thought about making the LEDs react differently for high-pitched sounds compared to low-pitched sounds.

He got the feature working, but said that it “didn’t look good”.

“I’m not planning on selling them so you’ll have to make your own,” he added.