Smart PPE Project Receives NSF RAPID Grant

Northwestern Engineering researchers have received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop smart face masks embedded with battery-free sensors to assess proper fit and monitor health.

This project is among the latest at Northwestern to receive a rapid research (RAPID) grant from the NSF, which has called for immediate proposals that have potential to address the novel COVID-19 pandemic.

Led by Josiah Hester, the team aims to integrate tiny, lightweight, battery-free devices into face masks for use in the hospital or home. By using already available sensors, such as accelerometers and motion and strain sensors, the device will be able to tell if the mask is too loose or improperly suctioned onto the face. It also will be able to sense if the mask wearer is fatigued or having difficulty breathing.

“We want to make these sensors small enough and cheap enough to be used on every single piece of PPE in the country, numbering tens of billions,” said Hester, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering. “Because time is of the essence, we are doing our best to use what we already have. We are leveraging techniques that are built on solid literature in sensing. We do not want to re-invent the wheel.”

This project also builds on Hester’s previous work to develop battery-free devices that can harvest ambient energy without losing their memory during intermittent power outages. With the RAPID funding, his team will build new energy harvesting, battery-free hardware and software to keep on-mask sensors powered and maintenance free, without the need for recharging batteries or for long power cords. 

“Our work is motivated by the fact that no clinician, caregiver or person going to the grocery store is going to plug their mask into a wall,” Hester said.

Oliver Cossairt, Northwestern Engineering associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, and Nabil Alshurafa, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine and (by courtesy) computer science at McCormick, are co-principal investigators on the project.

The team plans to release an early version of the smart masks for pilot testing by the end of this summer. Then, it will release all designs, schematics, software, and performance data, so other researchers can use or extend the work. 

“Communities or hospitals can quite literally take our design files, email them to one of the many fabrication companies around the nation,” Hester said, “and have working devices by the end of the week.”