Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Razer began converting some of its manufacturing facilities to make facial masks for front-line workers. So far they have donated more than a million face masks worldwide to hospitals, governments and other healthcare organizations, but now Razer is giving its own influence to this vital part of our lives with its Project Hazel concept. Nicknamed the smartest face mask in the world, Project Hazel has a clear, transparent design with a built-in voice amplifier to facilitate conversation with the people around it, and will also be cleaned and disinfected using UV lights inside the its special cargo box. Why does a face mask need a charging box? Well, it has built-in Razer Chroma RGBs, right?
Yes, you read that correctly. RGB on a face mask.
Don’t let these rainbow circles fool you, though, as despite looking like something directly in Metro 2033 or The Division 2, Project Hazel is equipped with some serious anti-Covid technology. The first is the medical grade N95 respirator (or FFTP2 for those in Europe), which blocks at least 95% of airborne particles. This standard is widely used by health care workers, but while some more traditional N95 respirators can be difficult to breathe due to their ultra-tight fit and lack of ventilation, Razer has equipped Project Hazel with detachable active fans to help regulate the flow of air inside the mask.
These fans and the mask itself can also be disinfected simply by placing them inside your charging box. It has four UV lights on the inside (two on the top, one on the back and one on the front) that will sterilize everything while the mask is being charged to maintain protection.
Project Hazel doesn’t stop here either, as it also has a built-in microphone and Razer’s patent-pending VoiceAmp technology to help make your sound sound clearer and less muted. Combine that with its clear, transparent design that lets you see if someone is smiling at you (which also has white LEDs built-in to light up your face in low light, you might add), and you shouldn’t. resorting to large, emphatic hand gestures, to say, “Please stay away from me.”
Razer doesn’t yet have an exact price or release date for Project Hazel, but it will definitely be here long before its other recently announced CES concept product, Project Brooklyn. Razer has told me that they already have a prototype in operation, but as with all of their conceptual ideas, they will make new adjustments and optimizations in the coming weeks and months to make sure it meets all the necessary security standards without doing any commitment to convenience or usability.