Photo: Dyson
Best known for vacuum cleaners, Dyson has announced the “Dyson Zone,” a pair of over-ear headphones with an air-purifying mouth visor. It is the company’s first attempt at wearable technology.
One reviewer said the headphones would definitely “turn heads in the street.”
Britta O’Boyle, a deputy editor at gadget publication Pocket-lint, wrote, “Their design is certainly eye-catching.”
O’Boyle added that the sound quality was “excellent,” and the headphones had a “lovely construction.”
However, since she could not test the product outdoors, she could not say how effective the air-purifying function was or “how silly you feel wearing it.”
The headphones will go on sale in the autumn.
O’Boyle added, “We don’t expect them to be cheap.”
Global problem
The Dyson Zone features a motor, fan, and air filter in each ear cup and a noise-canceling tool.
The filters capture allergens and pollutants in the air, such as nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, and brake dust.
The purified air is received by the nose and the mouth through the visor that is magnetically attached to the bottom of the headphones.
The company says it is 97% effective at getting clean air to the lungs.
Track breathing
Breathing and exertion are tracked by the device to toggle between its four purification modes, depending on whether the wearer is walking or sitting down.
They also come with:
- an app that lets users specify their location and determines when the filter needs replacing
- a face-covering that slots into the visor
Pocket-line said that the product has four hours’ battery life in low-filtration or 1.5 hours in high filtration.
‘Fresh air’
Chief engineer Jake Dyson said, “Air pollution is a global problem – it affects us everywhere we go.”
“The Dyson Zone purifies the air you breathe on the move.
“And unlike face masks, it delivers a plume of fresh air without touching your face, using high-performance filters and two miniaturized air pumps.”
The non-contact aspect of the device was a “must” for the designers to avoid discomfort and irritation.
It is also the Dyson engineers’ first step into audio.
The Dyson Zone has been six years and 500 prototypes in the making. A snorkel-like mouthpiece was paired with a backpack holding the motor and other gear in one of the original prototypes.
The Verge called the finished product “bizarre.”
“While mask-wearing has been normalized considerably over the past two years, we’ll have to see whether customers will be willing to embrace this extremely odd-looking product,” it wrote.
Gadget publication Stuff.tv called it “the wildest gadget we’ve ever tried.”
Tech website Cnet said it looked “like something you’d see in a dystopian sci-fi movie.”
