A 14-years-old Mikhail Chumachenko from Odessa, has developed a smart LED Qudi Mask, which reacts to head movement, opens his mouth during a conversation and is capable of demonstrating various animations.
Mikhail Chumachenko from Odessa is in the 11th grade. From the age of 12 he has been engaged in programming, from the age of 14 he began to develop his own startup. Mikhail has developed the smart LED Qudi Mask himself. According to him, this is the world's first emotional mask: it reacts to head movements, opens its mouth during speech and shows various animations.
The young start-up managed to present his project at a dozen events, including the Web Summit. The mask has turned from a simple prototype into a full-fledged product and is being successfully sold on the website (about 50 pieces have already been purchased). Qudi Mask also appeared on the Wylsacom YouTube channel and on the Instagram account of DJ Don Diablo. Now, Mikhail is preparing the second version of the mask.
I have been doing break dance since I was 12, and there is such a moment that all the dancers are trying to make a show off : they choose bright clothes, unusual accessories (various bracelets, hats, panamas, etc.). I also wanted to somehow emphasize my style against the background of all the break dancers. At first, I began to wear just a K-pop mask, that is, a regular cloth half-face mask. And then I thought that I could do something more original, considering that I am also doing programming. This is how I created the first prototype of the Qudi Mask. There were literally 30 pixels, it was as simple as possible: a wire went from the mask to the pocket, where the main power supply was.
Mikhail Chumachenko
The next prototype was already a full-face mask, because it was easier to work with, there was more room for flexible placement of electronics. And now the Qudi Mask has been cultivated over the course of this year, constantly being improved and has come to the form in which it is today.
Mikhail was completely involved in the development, firmware, mask design, and the structure of the product itself. The mask is based on the Smart LED-strip technology, which consists of a large number of pixels, the colour and brightness of each of which can be adjusted separately.
As for the improvement, Mikhail added more new animations to the mask firmware over time, the ability to adjust the brightness and sensitivity of the microphone, and also switched from regular Bluetooth to BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), which made it possible to connect to the mask from the iPhone application. It is also worth noting that the mask is extremely easy to connect even for the first time to a new smartphone. For example, You can manage to turn on the mask, connect to it from the application and select the desired animation while going down in the elevator, which most other smart masks cannot boast of.
Qudi Mask is designed to grab attention. It has many different animations that are displayed on the mask using the built-in LED screen, there are many pixels on it.
The main mode is a robot. If you speak the mask opens its mouth under your speech. She also reacts to head movement. I shake my head from side to side - it shows "No", nod - the inscription "Yes" appears. When I am silent, after a certain time the mask starts showing random emotions. Now, she brought out a confused face - confusion.
In the meantime, people are just starting to master the niche of LED clothing, it's time to make your style more "dazzling" with Qudi!
Source: Qudi Mask
