A young Chinese dad spent a month converting a cat carrier backpack into a safety pod for his baby. His invention allegedly protects the child from infection and pumps purified air into the pod with an electronic fan system.
30-year-old Cao Junjie, a tech-savvy father from Shanghai, China, wanted something that would allow him and his wife, Fang, to take their two-month old son on walks without worrying that he might get infected with the novel coronavirus. Even though babies and young people in general usually experience mild symptoms, they didn’t want to take a chance, so Junjie came up with a solution inspired by Hideo Kojima’s latest video game (Death Stranding), a carrier pod completely isolated form the outside.
The custom pod not only features built-in rubber gloves that prevent direct skin contact, but also connects to an electronic fan system which pumps fresh, purified air into it. Cao also included a digital monitor that constantly determines the quality of the air inside the pod.
“It can offer a totally isolated environment when going out,” the Chinese inventor said. “It can provide a safe and comfortable environment for the baby. The mask can affect his breathing, so it’s dangerous.”
The couple have already tested the pod system a few times, and claim it works as intended, offering a very high level of protection for their baby. They even released a video showing how he places his son into the pod, and then taking him out for a walk. The baby spends most of the time sleeping, bu there is no way to know for sure if the pod works as described by its inventor.
“Because I like scientific movies and video games, the structure of the safety cabin is similar to that featured in the video game Death Stranding, I copied the character in the game,” Cao Junjie said.
Doctors who have seen the footage refrained from commenting without first examining the baby isolation pod first hand, but some did express concern about the baby’s air supply in the event of an air system malfunction.
Cao Junjie told Chinese reporters that he plans to start producing more pods with varying sizes.
