NEW YORK: Japan’s Donut Robotics Co. and Omron Healthcare Co. are among companies that are trying to capture business opportunities at a major U.S. consumer electronics trade show amid the coronavirus pandemic.  

At CES 2022, being held for three days through Friday in Las Vegas, Donut Robotics introduced a “smart mask,” a face mask-like device that helps people have conversations with others while maintaining social distance.

When a person wearing the smart mask, called C-Face, on top of a face mask speaks, the person’s voice can be heard through the conversational partner’s smartphone up to 10 meters away. The text of the conversation is also displayed on the smartphone screen.

The C-Face, which also can translate the spoken words into eight other languages, is priced at about 5,000 yen. In Japan, about 6,000 units have been sold since the product’s launch last year.

Expressing hopes that the product will sell well in the United States, Taisuke Ono, chief executive of the Tokyo robot startup, said, “Demand for translation is stronger in the United States than in Japan.”

Omron Healthcare released research findings that blood pressure readings improved for 40 pct of hypertension patients after one month of use of the company’s remote medical support service, which has been offered for such patients in the United States since 2020.

The  Muko, Kyoto Prefecture-based health care unit of Omron Corp. aims to use the data to expand its business.

JIJI Press