$15 ViralHelmet (DIY, noncommercial), with 99.99% filters

We have put out an open source* design of a $15 to make a "Hoodie Viral Helmet". It's basically a PAPR built from hospital grade filters. If you are interested, go take a look: https://www.viralhelmets.com/15-hoodie-viral-helmet

I run the non-commercial site http://viralhelmets.com.

DETAILS / WHY I'M POSTING

I saw a lot of people pwning the $199 and $300 viral helmets that have come out. (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25848412) Yeah, at those price points, it doesn't make sense.

The $15 design actually comes out of about 1000+ hours of engineering work (see bunnyPAPR.org). We tried to get interest to commercialize and get certified (NIOSH/FDA). But medical certification in the US is a nightmare and hospitals are slow. We couldn't get much interest or backers.

So, I'm releasing the key parts of our research as a $15 free-to-build plan.

THE FILTERS MATTER One big difference is that we use hospital-sourced PFT and HMEF filters. We don't trust the supply chains that are pumping out special purpose filters for "fad" mask designs. After the fake/underperforming KN95 scandals in April/May, we stuck with supply chains that existed before COVID. The Stanford pneumask and maskson.org projects took a similar approach.

UPTAKE/ MARKET FIT We tried approaching some nursing home, school districts, and hospitals about this. They are so inundated by snake oil vendors, they weren't very interested in being a beta tester. Same with CDC... inundated.

We do have a few doctors using these, but not publicizing it.

CODA Viral Helmets could protect all wearers. Could end the pandemic. But, that's a hard sell since they are so "untested". (Though we use PFT and HMEF filters in surgery, and PAPRs in biohazard scenarios... )

*Not technically "open source". CC-NC-SA license.

Thanks to @yonran for mentioning ViralHelmets.com in the other yc post.