“I can hear you well even with a mask”…Development of a microphone patch attached to the skin

As wearing masks has become common, there is a lot of inconvenience in communication. The sound is not clear to hear and is often repeated in a loud voice. A Korean research team has developed a ‘smart’ microphone that can be heard even when wearing a mask.

POSTECH (President Kim Moo-hwan) announced on the 17th that a research team led by Professor Gil-Won Cho from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Si-Young Lee, and Researcher Ha-Jeong Noh have developed a microphone placed on the skin that detects voices accurately even in noisy environments. The results of the research were published on the cover of the international academic journal ‘Advanced Materials’.

Microphones such as telephones and walkie-talkies are widely used in everyday life and workplaces. However, existing microphones did not detect sound correctly when there was a lot of ambient noise, when the wind was strong, or when you had to cover your mouth with a mask.

The research team produced a microphone in the form of a thin piece by applying microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology to an electret polymer material. This microphone, made from an electret polymer diaphragm, maximizes user convenience by attaching it to the skin of the neck without a separate battery.

The microphone uses vibrations on the skin of the neck that occur when a person speaks to detect a voice. Even in a noisy space such as a concert hall or in situations where the user’s face is completely covered by a gas mask, the sound can be heard accurately by using the microphone.

This technology is attracting attention as a disaster response technology as it can help the communication between medical staff wearing protective suits and firefighters wearing gas masks and fire suits at the scene of a noisy accident during a respiratory disease epidemic like Corona 19. Furthermore, it can be applied as a healthcare monitoring device to diagnose respiratory diseases by detecting the number or extent of coughing in real time, or to diagnose vocal cord health by detecting voice usage patterns. This study was supported by the Korea National Research Foundation.

Pohang = Reporter Jeong Jae-hoon jhoon@etnews.com