Nah, USB-powered
fans aren't anything
special these days, but infusing a couple of 'em into a bizarre facial mask and marketing it to folks with allergies earns top marks in the outlandish department.
Thanko, the folks who continually put the
fun back into USB, is busting out yet another oddity that relies entirely on
USB power and your willingness to suffer through public humiliation. The whirlwind mask purportedly circulates airs and filters the incoming flow in order to provide a constant stream of clean, "purified" air, which could actually be useful for secretaries or other cube-dwellers who are forced to inhale the same stale office air day after day. So if you've been having trouble breathing, and don't mind being tethered to your computer nor the constant whirring that'll surround your mouth, you can snag the USB Mask now for ¥2,480 ($21).
[Via
Engadget Japanese]
posted Feb 16th 2007 2:49PM
We will add your cultural distinctiveness to our own.
Resistance is futile
Think I can power this from the charging port on my Motorola Q so I can take it portable?
What about when you need to make a phone call does this thing have BT or work as a skype adapter?
This item should be the first in a new category (in the spirit of "CE-Oh no he didn't") called "US-Believe-it-or-not".
I think this could be useful in the middle of an intercubical "gas war" :)
Now you laugh, but when the bird flu or next global influenza outbreak hits you, you'll be sorry....
Add some yellow paint and black trim, and that cat'll start looking a whole lot more like Scorpion from MK.
"GET OVER HERE!" *hawssshhh* *heessshhh*
FINISH HIM
Thanko is quickly becoming my favorite company, simply because its wares are all so outlandish.
*insert random retarded web address that no one cares about here*
You actually backtracked to a two-month-old comment to defend your site?
Wow.
*insert generic insult here*
How r u supposed to use this where most ppl have allergies: outside? I have outdoor allergies, but I'm definitely not going to get this!
technigma.wordpress.com
Man, I am in! Oh, wait, it only blows around the bird flu air already in your office. *gasp...
Has anyone at Engadget ever been to Japan? You act like this is anything new.. When people are sick in Japan, they wear surgical masks, Engadget. This kind of think may become popular over there. I'm amazed at Engadget's ignorance.
when I grow up I wanna be a Thanko model.
Dude, it is Splinter from Ninja Turtles
With added bonus of sounding like Darth Vader when talking on the phone.
That thing is ridiculous. Those medical face guards that people in Asia use to protect themselves from germs and such don't actually do anything for you.. SURGEONS wear them to protect flayed open patients so that things don't fall out of their mouth/s into the patient. They have a respirator protection level of "0", so do dust masks which is what this product is emulating, whether it has an electric fan on it or not. Even if it has a charcoal filter on it. it would need to be changed at some point depending on what you were trying to protect yourself from. This is coming from a navy (respirator protection program manager). So yeah,, Sort this under "useless waste of money"
People in Japan wear masks for a bunch of reasons, not just to "protect themselves from germs." A good majority of people wear these masks to avoid breathing in pollen and other histamines, as apparently a lot of people have bad spring allergies here. A lot of other people wear them to protect *other* people from germs when they themselves are sick...the mask is supposed to catch the moisture beads expelled from coughs and sneezes, so that they don't end up on your hand or another person.