The Toulouse startup Skyted has developed a mask that completely isolates the voice, to be able to call on a train, on a plane or in an open space without making noise. Orders have been open for a few hours.
Who has never been bothered by a noisy neighbor? On the train or in other public places, some people seem to think they are at home. A particularly tiring phenomenon for those who spend time on public transport and who would just like to be able to rest. In other cases, you may skip important calls for fear of disturbing others. It all depends on your way of thinking.
This is the problem that the startup Skyted is addressing. Founded two years ago in Toulouse (the home of Airbus, which explains why many former employees of the company are part of the project), Skyted has developed a noise-canceling mask. Equipped with aspirated aviation microphones, it allows you to speak without anyone hearing, by canceling between 25 and 35 decibels. On the other side, the caller hears someone speaking in sound quality similar to that of an airplane cockpit. We tried it at CES 2024 in Las Vegas.
Skyted’s mask is available to order
Since January 7, the Skyted mask has been available on Kickstarter. For 399 euros (wired version) or 599 euros (Bluetooth version, with 10 hours of battery life), you can invest in the Skyted project and receive the product when it is released this fall. This is the first time that the brand is opening sales, after having already made headlines about its mask in recent months.
In Las Vegas we were able to briefly try the product. When you speak by holding it to your mouth, no one hears anything. The filters inside perfectly isolate any audio.
On the other hand, when wearing the headset connected to the mask, we hear a sound very close to that of an airplane. The sound is a little distorted but is perfectly audible. The brand has obviously patented this technology, while drawing inspiration from technologies used in aviation.
Skyted imagines several markets for its mask, such as telephone calls in public places, securing discussions in sensitive places or the video game market. The brand is talking in particular with the SNCF to discuss a partnership, even if its primary goal should be to sell the product directly to consumers.
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