Lo! Here's a social distancing jacket

Somewhere in Delhi there’s a head at work frenziedly researching, designing and prototyping ‘stylish, comfortable and functional’ personal protection equipment to face the continuing onslaught of the coronavirus. Somesh Singh, a NIFT graduate and co-founder of Craft Village has applied for a patent for his market-ready Social Distancing Jacket and a Folding Face Shield—100 percent made in India—locally designed, assembled and produced. Richa Bansal reports.

A choker that opens up as a mask, a shield-like social distancing (SD) jacket with pockets that sanitise, a face visor that can collapse and fit into your glares’ case, a UV hanger that will make your clothes safe when you return indoors and lots more in the pipeline. NIFT raduate and co-founder-Craft Village  as also a former faculty member at NID, Somesh Singh is on a roll as he spends much of his waking hours researching, designing and prototyping fashionable yet functional gears for a still getting attuned to a bleak COVID-19-ravaged ifestyle the world over. “We can’t be  moving around in the PPEs that we are currently seeing. We must come up with more comfortable if not trendy wears to keep this killer virus at bay,” asserts he.

Besides, Singh adds, as the world begins to ‘unlock’ itself in phases, the virus continues to run amuck. Each individual is now increasingly responsible for his / her safety, and yet in spite of interventions by the authorities that be, the relaxations mean more and more people will interact with each other at work and in public space.

“I took to designing the smart apparel as these were some of the basic questions that bothered me: how does one know that a person working in a space or office or moving in public space is not unwell? How does one know how to maintain a distance of minimum 2-metres or 6-feet, and not cross the Laxman Rekha so to say, and maintain a social distance as advised by experts? How does one sanitise wallets, cards, watch, mobile phones etc all the time? How does a company / government track who has been where in factories, or at railway stations, bus stops? Then carrying a mask is a huge problem and all the time the hands will get dirty if kept in pockets.”

And as the mind nagged, the designer in him took over. So what is ready as of now is the Indradhanush or the SD jacket, and a folding face shield. Made using Cemi-Flex (cement fabric) of Craft Beton, an initiative of Dalmia Cement, the jacket is equipped thus:

• Temperature display: You can monitor your own temperature any time, and so can any other person / company or any authority. The display on the garment, much like a badge, displays real time body temperature.

• Social distancing: The jacket beeps if you cross or someone enters your territory, helping you maintain the required social distance all the time and at all the places. It can be switched off when you are in an isolated space.

• Magic pockets: These are equipped with low intensity UV lights required to sanitise regular use items such as a cell phone, handkerchief, watch, wallet, credit cards, sunglasses and gloves etc. The direction of the low intensity UV light and use of reflectors contains the light in the defined space and does not penetrate through the fabric to harm the body.

• QR code / chip: The QR code helps to track identity and other whereabouts to trace the movement of people in highly crowded places and elsewhere so that the people moving in these spaces can be monitored all the time. It also helps in recording temperature all the time and at any place without requiring infrared guns.
• In-built mask: The jacket's convertible collar doubles up as a mask which can be folded back as a collar when required. The mask can be detached, washed or sanitised as required.