Xu Zongyan: inventor applies air con tech to personal breathing filter

Xu Zongyan was working at a large air-conditioner manufacturer when he noticed that air-quality products were becoming increasingly important to mainlanders. He left the company to launch his own business, intending at first to design only pollution monitors. But Xu, 29, soon realised that with a slight tweak of filtration technology, he could combine air-purification with monitoring into a single "smart" device. He says prototypes are ready and he hopes to begin production in a few months.

It looks like a set of headphones, but instead of earpieces, it has a tube that emits clean, treated air in front of your nose. The device comes with a sensor that monitors pollution levels - such as the amount of PM2.5 particulates and the level of oxygen in the air around you. It also features an electrostatic precipitator - a highly efficient filtration device - which sends purified air to the nose area through either a tube or a nasal pillow.

The nasal pillow is similar to devices used in respiratory machines that fully cover your nose. As the purified air is delivered directly into your nose, the air you breathe can have a near-zero PM2.5 level, while surrounding PM2.5 levels can be more than 300 micrograms per cubic metre. The pillow is comfortable to wear, but some users may not like it. If you use the tube, however, the air you breathe will be a mixture of purified air and ambient polluted air. But that mixture will still have a lower PM2.5 level than the air in your surroundings.