Patent Application
20230165326
The present invention relates to musicians’ face shields for the protection of infection spreading through droplets and aerosols. Most face shields have been used in the medical community to protect the healthcare worker from direct sneezes, coughs, or other patient produced sprays. Standard face shields have been shown to reduce the inhalation exposure by 96% in the immediate period after a cough but only by 23% in the following 30 minutes. This is most likely due to the particles floating in the air and eventually making it past the large open sides and top of the face shield. Conversely, similar problems with current face shield designs allow infected people’s droplets to escape out of the confines of a simple face shield to where others can easily inhale them.
With the introduction of Covid-19, its variants, and anticipation of other future novel coronaviruses for which there are not vaccines, the CDC recommends the best way to prevent infection spread when out in public is the wearing of face coverings such as face masks, handwashing, and to physically distance six feet apart from others. Viruses, including the Covid-19 are largely thought to be transmitted from human-to-human by droplets, aerosols, and fomites. There is still much debate on the virus payload per droplet that would be enough to cause infection in susceptible persons, how deep one would have to breathe to carry the droplets or aerosols into the respiratory tract, and how prevalent self-inoculation from contaminated hands is.
Whereas cloth masks are supposed to help protect others from one’s coughs, they do little to protect oneself against others’ coughs. Viruses can enter through any mucous membrane, including the eyes, which are not protected by masks. It is also very difficult to police the types of masks people wear. Different masks have different inhalation filtering and protective exhalation capabilities. For example, if the user coughs or sneezes, the smaller aerosol spray is propelled directly out of the mask (or around the mask if not properly fitted) through the varying weave density of cloth masks, thus endangering all around. Masks are uncomfortable, hot, difficult to breathe through, and muffle sound. They are often worn improperly because the users adjust them to be more comfortable to the point where they become ineffective (e.g. nose out, totally off during phone calls, on the chin, hanging off one ear, etc.). Making continuous adjustments to irritating face masks also increases the probability of self-infection because the user touches his/her face more.
In the specialized cases such as musical bands that traditionally perform on stage in confined settings for long periods of time, cloth masks only offer basic protection against others because the aerosolized micro droplets that are produced during playing instruments or just during normal breathing easily pass through any loosely woven cotton masks or poorly fitting masks. It is also difficult to maintain six feet of distance between band members due to the limited room on stages and the sometimes large number of band members.
The physical (social) distancing guideline of six feet away from others allows any droplets time to drop to the ground or be diluted before reaching others. Physical distancing does not prevent spread 100% of the time as factors such as wind, fans, and HVAC could potentially keep the droplets airborne for longer distances and times. When many people are tightly packed into a room with poor ventilation and there is a high density of infected aerosolized particles making up a virus cloud, the chance of infection spread is high.
Movement of aerosols follows several basic mechanisms: gravity sedimentation, ballistic energy, inertial impaction, thermal gradients, electromagnetic radiation, turbulent diffusion, inertial forces, Brownian motion, and electrostatic forces. For small droplets and aerosols larger than 5 µm, gravity, ballistic energy, and inertial impaction play a role. Ballistic energy is the force projecting particles such as in coughs or sneezes and inertial impaction occurs when aerosol particles have so much momentum that they cannot keep up with the air stream that suddenly takes a sharp turn. In the case of an impenetrable shield, the particles are deposited on the shield while the rest of the air stream is forced downward by the plastic shield. Aerosols in the 0.1 um to 5 um range are affected by thermal gradients, electromagnetic radiation, air turbulence, Brownian motion, and electrostatic attraction. By directing aerosol and droplets down toward the ground, these other forces are less likely to keep aerosols forming an aerosol cloud up where people can inhale them.
The COVID-19 virus measures 0.12 microns in diameter but it is always bonded to something larger such as water droplets or aerosols that are generated by sneezing, coughing, talking, singing, etc. Expelled breath particle size ranges have been measured to be from 0.07 um to 33 um but most during deep breathing are between 0.2 and 33 um. For this reason, emphasis is placed on shielding and redirecting aerosols and droplets containing viruses measuring >0.2 um.
The present invention relates to top and side sealed light-weight, comfortable, multi-use, single person face shields for musicians who need to play various instruments while wearing face covering personal protective equipment. Whereas face shields used in healthcare have large gaps on the sides and varying gap sizes on the top of the face shields, the present shield is designed to close up these gaps to prevent both droplets and aerosols from easily entering the facial area as well as from being projected outward toward other non-protected people. The sealed face shield for musicians has one or more musical openings that allow instruments to pass through so the user can play while still wearing a face covering. These ports are then made to be self-sealing around the instrument or designed with flaps that lift up to allow instruments to pass through.
In one aspect of the present invention, the shield includes a thin clear plastic sheet that extends from the forehead to below the chin and wraps around the face.
In another aspect of the present invention, the plastic sheet ends anteriorly to the ears to remove the loud reverberation sounds from the wearer’s ears.
In another aspect of the present invention, the shield stands away from the user’s face far enough to accommodate noses, eye glasses, makeup, jewelry, and other facial related devices/activities. The shield is held away from the face with contoured foam, plastic, or other light weight material which is affixed to the top of the plastic sheet. The standoff seal does not have any gaps in between the face and the plastic sheet to prevent droplets from exiting or entering the face area from the top of the shield. This is achieved by contouring the brow seal to form a crescent shape when worn or adding tapered wedges to the top corners of the face shield to plug the gaps between the brow seal and the sides of the clear face shield once the musician’s face shield is wrapped around the head. This contouring, relief cutting of the brow seal, or addition of wedges also allow the face shield to lay flat for shipping purposes.
In another aspect of the present invention, the sides of the plastic sheet are drawn flush to the wearer’s face with either a chin strap and/or an additional head strap. Removing the side gaps between the face and the plastic sheet prevents droplets from exiting or entering the face area from the sides of the shield.
In another aspect of the present invention, the plastic sheet directs exhaled droplets and aerosols down to the ground where other people are much less likely to inhale them.
In another aspect of the present invention, the plastic sheet holds a natural electrostatic charge which also helps attract charged virus/droplet/aerosol particles. This charge is continuously refreshed when the plastic rubs against the user’s hair and other static generating straps.
In another aspect of the present invention, when outfitted with a chin strap, the user is able to don the shield using one hand by first planting the chin on top of the chin strap and then pulling the top headband over the head with a single hand motion. When outfitted with a second head band, sides of the plastic sheet may be outfitted with gap filling foam, fabric, or other suitable material to close the gap and achieve a tight side seal.
In another aspect of the present invention, the clear plastic sheet can be made with antifog coating to prevent fogging when exhaling high humidity moisture.
In another aspect of the present invention, the clear plastic sheet can be made with anti-glare coating to prevent glare from bright overhead or stage lights.
In another aspect of the present invention, the shield when outfitted with a chin strap, is pulled primarily downward but slightly outward from the wearer so that instruments such as clarinets and oboes can be brought to the musicians’ mouth from the bottom of the shield.
In another aspect of the present invention, the head and chin straps are adjustable with stretchy ties and knotted to allow for all head shapes and sizes. Other means of fitting various head sizes include elastic, Velcro, adjustable bands, and non-stretch ties.
In another aspect of the present invention, the plastic sheet can be made in different sizes to accommodate wearers from infant to full adult sizes.
It is an object of the invention to provide a better sealed face shield for the protection of musicians from exposure to infected people as well as to provide protection of others from musicians’ aerosols/droplets.
It is another object of the invention to address the gaps around the wearer’s face of a traditional face shield while still providing the same comfortable, full face view of the wearer.
Another object of the invention is to direct airflow from the wearer that contains potentially infectious viruses down toward the ground where they are less likely to come into contact with surrounding people. This in effect achieves the same goal that physical distancing does but without relying solely on gravity to achieve.
Another object of the invention is to block airflow containing aerosol from easily entering the wearer’s facial area from the top or sides of the shield. The aerosol would essentially have to fight gravity in order to enter the wearer’s breathing space.
Yet another object of the invention is to allow musical band members to easily and more safely play their instruments while wearing face coverings.
Another object of the invention is to seal the instrument port entries when not playing so the musician’s expired air is steered downward to the ground in a more tightly controlled droplet trajectory.
Still another object of the invention is to allow loud instrument playing within the face shield without hurting the wearer’s hearing. This is done by pulling the sides of the shield anterior to the ears so the ears are outside of the sound chamber created by the sealed face shield.
Another object of the invention is to provide clear facial viewing of musicians’ faces with exception of the instrument port that may block the mouth or the right cheek for flute/piccolo ports.
Another object of the invention is to fabricate the instrument opening covers with transparent, translucent, or opaque material such as clear plastic, thin stretch fabric, opaque neoprene, fabric of varying deniers, or any other durable material that will block infectious agents.
Another object of the invention is to design smooth port coverings such that instrument mouthpieces can easily slip in and out without getting caught on the shield or port coverings.
Another object of the invention is a flap that covers the opening when not in use and flips out of the way enough to insert an instrument through the opening when the musician is ready to play. When the instrument is removed, the flap covers the opening again.
Another object of the invention is to provide a customized skin tone browband so that performers with the protective face shields on can make the browband blend in with the color of their skin.
Current US Class: A41D13/1184 Protective face masks, e.g. for surgical use, or for use in foul atmospheres with protection for the eyes, e.g. using shield or visor
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Pat. Application No. 63106354 filed Oct. 27, 2020.
