A Team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has designed an easy-to-assemble oxygen mask that would enhance the lifetime of cylinders for Covid-19 patients. The innovative mechanism reuses the exhaled O2, thus reducing the number of cylinders used per patient. This would prove to be a major relief as the country is facing an acute shortage of medical oxygen.

Several students, alumni and research staff members of the IIT-B, affiliated with Tata Centre for Technology and Design, Chemical Engineering and Nex Robotics, have built a prototype that has been tested on healthy volunteers. Its hardware designs have been placed in the public domain for more to refer. The prototype, called reBreather, minimises oxygen wastage when a patient is put on assisted breathing via cylinders or centralised O2 supply in hospitals.