US Patent 11019859 Acoustic face mask apparatus

An acoustic face mask reduces the distortion and muffling of speech sounds by a face mask wall. The distortion and muffling of speech sounds by a face mask wall may be reduced by reducing the acoustic coupling of the vocal tract and/or nasal cavity to the face mask chamber, which causes a reduction in the intelligibility of the speech. The acoustic coupling of the vocal tract and/or nasal cavity to the face mask chamber may be reduced, for example, by reducing the reflected sound energy caused by the face mask wall. For example, one or more sound absorbing members or acoustically transparent members reduce the reflected sound energy caused by the face mask wall.