To help prevent the coronavirus from spreading, it has been recommended that we wear masks when out in public. However, the whole situation with masks has become quite politicized, with some people refusing to wear them. To remedy this, designer Allen Pan decided that he would create something that would essentially “force” masks onto people.
This comes in the form of a DIY launcher/gun that when fired, will release a mask that will bind itself around the face of the target. While we imagine that it will most likely tick a lot of people off, especially if they have no desire to wear a mask in the first place, the idea itself is pretty ingenious and rather hilarious, even if Pan might not necessarily have intended to actually fire it onto people to begin with.
How his launcher works is that it fires off a mask that comes attached with four weights. The launcher was inspired by trap-like inventions like the bolas and net launchers, which uses weights to carry it forwards and also to generate momentum to help the strings tie themselves around the person’s neck/face.
While Pan’s invention seems to work in close quarters where the launcher is up against a person’s face, it’s a bit trickier in real-life where factors like the wind keeps throwing the mask off course. If you have about 10 minutes to spare, check out Pan’s invention in action in the video above.
Filed in . Read more about Coronavirus, Covid-19 and DYI.