- Chinese designer Sun Dayong created a design for a shield that protects wearers from contracting COVID-19, the coronavirus disease.
- The shield is called “Be a Batman,” and inspired by the wings of a bat.
- UV radiation on the shield is designed to kill the virus, while the whole device is “a shell that can wrap us up and distance ourselves from the world.”
- The coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has killed 3,900 people worldwide and infected more than 111,000, according to recent totals.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The worldwide death toll of the novel coronavirus disease that originated in Wuhan, China, is now more than 3,300, and the virus has infected more than 97,000 people.
On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared it a global health emergency. The virus has disrupted travel worldwide, leading to flight cancellations, quarantines, and other breakdowns in movement.
Chinese architect Sun Dayong has a possible way to curb the spread of this virus: Be a Batman. He designed a concept for a wearable shield partly inspired by the structure of bat wings. Experts believe that bats may have originally hosted this novel coronavirus before it jumped to humans, as well as past coronaviruses including Ebola and SARS.
Take a look at his design here.
The device is worn like a backpack, with straps around the shoulders and waist.
"The outbreak of coronavirus disease has deprived us of the sense of security we used to have, and put us in sore need of a shell that can wrap us up and distance ourselves from the world," Dayong said.
The CDC says that coronavirus is spread between people in "close contact," and by "respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes." This design makes it much more difficult for droplets to spread from person to person.
After COVID-19 is no longer an immediate threat, Dayong thinks that maybe the shields could be upgraded with Google Glass technology.
Source: Dezeen
The design is just a concept, but Dayong also hopes to have ultraviolet radiation on the device's surface that can kill the virus on contact.
The bat design element is most evident from behind.
Dayong told Business Insider that he partially based his design off of bat wings, plus the childhood dream of being Batman. "The device is also foldable, ready to open automatically when we need to contact with the outside world," much like a bat's wings, he said.
Dayong is interested in finding a manufacturer for the device, which is made of carbon fiber and PVC. He's offering up the design, and his own consulting.
Source: Fast Company