Brisk demand for mask that can also unlock phone

With the coronavirus spreading rapidly and a worldwide shortage of N95 face masks, San Francisco-based designer Danielle Baskin has proposed a solution — a custom respirator mask that will not only help shield you from infection, but also allow unlock your iphone through Face ID.

“Resting Risk Face” ships right to your door after you submit a photo of yourself to Baskin’s web app to be printed on an N95 mask. The mask retails for US$40.

Baskin tweeted out the website along with some photos on Feb. 15, writing, “Made this service that prints your face on an N95 mask, so you can protect people from viral epidemics while still being able to unlock your phone.”

The tweet garnered some mixed reactions on Twitter, with one person writing, “This seems entirely appropriate levels of creepy for this dystopia we are heading into,” and another saying, “This is so dystopian I want off the planet immediately.”

The website itself takes a stab at its dystopian-like qualities, referring to the mask as a product of “latestage capitalism.”

Baskin said there are more than 1,500 people currently on the wait-list.

She also recognizes people’s fears about the product, but is taking advantage of it. “Of course, a lot of reactions call this product dystopian and Black Mirror-esque, but as a friend said ‘We already live in the uncanny valley, why not dress like it?’ ”