Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has confirmed with Yahoo News that his company will be releasing its Project Hazel smart masks. First unveiled at CES 2021, they include a built-in microphone and speaker, silicon nose guard, and even RGB. The mask features a transparent front covering and active air ventilation that’s said to be as effective as an N95 mask.
The project began in April 2020 when Razer decided to make masks for the pandemic. After repurposing some of its manufacturing, Razer began shipping them. It donated roughly 1 million masks around the world. Along the way, Razer began to conceptualize a smart mask design. The company wanted to create more sustainable masks.
We’ve realized that even with vaccinations we are hearing you still have to be masked up because there is still the risk factor that even if you’re vaccinated you still need to be incredibly careful. Secondly, there are also many countries that are unlikely that are going to get the whole [scale] of vaccinations in the next year or even two so traveling, everyone should be very careful.
So with that in mind, we are going to go ahead and solve the sustainable aspect of the mask which is one of the big things for us. Project Hazel is going to be a reality. We are going to make it happen and I think we will all be, unfortunately, wearing masks for a long time to come.
Pricing and availability for Project Hazel has not been announced.