Take a deep breath to recharge your mobile phone

Heavy breathing during a phone call may never be a socially acceptable pastime, but doing it beforehand might be, at least if the AIRE Mask ever comes to fruition. This concept device uses wind energy to provide power to a USB port that can be used to charge mobile gadgets — and that wind comes from a mask worn over the nose and mouth.

Published: March 9, 2012

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Heavy breathing during a phone call may never be a socially acceptable pastime, but doing it beforehand might be, at least if the AIRE Mask ever comes to fruition.

This concept device uses wind energy to provide power to a USB port that can be used to charge mobile gadgets — and that wind comes from a mask worn over the nose and mouth.

The mask supposedly packs internal turbines that generate electricity when they’re rotated by the wearer’s normal breathing action, but there’s precious little information on the actual technology used, or how much power the AIRE Mask actually generates.

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There’s also no mention of whether or not the AIRE Mask will make the wearer sound like Darth Vader in addition to looking like him, but the design did at least make a positive enough impression on the judges for the Red Dot design awards, where it picked up a ‘Best of the Best’ plaudit.

Look out for the AIRE Mask in, oh, 2017 or so — if it ever makes it to production, that is…

[via TreeHugger]