Brief Explanation

We needed an effective way to educate children in Korea the importance of wearing masks on a “bad” fine dust day. We upgraded everyday masks to be interesting themselves and to make the experience of wearing fun. We printed nine kinds of fun characters on masks and then covered it with a dust face character with thermochromic ink. When children wore them, temperature from their breath changed the character on the mask. The digital vending machine collected real-time data from the Korea Meteorological Administration. On a “bad” fine dust day, the screen changed to “bad” and the motion sensor caught the attention of children by automatically playing educational video content. After the clip, the vending machine dropped masks for the children to experience. These experience were made into a video to be on-aired on various media channels across Seoul, raising awareness of the necessity of masks.

Execution

We designed, developed and manufactured the Peekaboo Mask. We used mask materials from a textile factory, designed face characters for the masks and utilized thermochromic ink. For the mask experienced, first, we printed nine different kinds of fun character faces. Then with help from experts and we covered it with a dust face character with thermochromic ink. The thermochromic ink, proven to be nontoxic for children, became transparent when the temperature became high. Thus when children wore the masks, temperature from their breath raised the temperature on the mask and changed the dust character image on the mask to the nine fun characters. The masks were experienced through a educational video and given out from a real-time data retrieving digital vending machine.