Telangana youth innovates portable home nebulizer amid COVID crisis

Yadadri Bhuvanagiri: Concerned with the plight of people struggling to obtain oxygen cylinders and concentrators for treatment of those battling with severe COVID-19, a 24-year-old from Telangana’s Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district has devised creating an ‘electric mask’, which acts as a portable home nebulizer.

The innovation is the brainchild of Kunchala Shiva Nagaraju, who devised the mask with assistance from his motely team of college going students including those pursuing B. Tech programme, who came forward to join him in his projects through social media.

The mask, claims the 24-year-old, enables people to breathe in purified filtered air and is better than other masks that are available in the market. Explaining the process used in the device, Shiva told ANI, “The air, entering the nebulizer, passes through an air chamber and from there to the medicine chamber after getting filtered. The air eventually passes through another filter and then through a small pipe that is attached to the mask.”

Thus, he says, people will be able to breathe in double filtered air.

Shiva further said the ‘Electric mask’ uses a regular cloth mask which is fitted with a thin air pipe/ IV pipe inside it.

 The mask has a small inlet where the pipe from the nebulizer is connected. The Nebulizer is fixed in a small wooden box that can be carried around in a pocket and is very handy to use.

“The cost of the portable home nebulizer electric mask is Rs 600 -700,” says Shiva.

The rural innovator says he wanted to become an engineer but ended up being a B.Com (Computers) graduate due to various factors, including financial constraints given his poor background.

He has since then also set up ‘Blue wings’, a start-up.

“The team took nearly about 128 attempts to get the final product and have spent nearly about Rs. 38,000,” Shiva adds.

This is not the first time Shiva has invented something different on his own.

Earlier, after the Disha rape and murder incident in Hyderabad, he invented a stun gun for women who can use it in case they are attacked.

The gun delivers a good electric shock to the attacker without causing injury.