Dyson has made its first foray into wearable electronics with an eye-catching set of over-ear headphones that include an air-purifying mouth visor.
Dyson, which is best known for vacuum cleaners, has recently expanded its product portfolio to include fans and a hairdryer. The Dyson Zone headphones are designed to combat air pollution, which is on the rise.
They’d “definitely turn heads on the street,” said to one reviewer. “Their design is undeniably eye-catching,” Britta O’Boyle, deputy editor at gadget website Pocket-lint, observed.
The music quality was “excellent,” she said, and the headphones were “beautifully crafted,” according to BBC News. Because she couldn’t test the product outside, she couldn’t tell how effectively it cleansed the air or “how foolish you felt wearing it.” In the fall, the headphones will be available.
“We don’t expect them to be affordable,” O’Boyle added.
The noise-cancelling headphones have a motor, fan, and air filters in each ear cup. When air flows through the filters, allergens and pollutants such as nitrogen and sulphur dioxide, as well as brake dust, are caught.
This filtered air is then sent to the nose and mouth through the visor, which is magnetically attached to the bottom of the headphones. According to the company, it is successful in supplying clean air to the lungs 97% of the time. Keep an eye on your breathing. There are four purification modes, depending on whether the wearer is walking down the street or sitting.
Breathing and activity are measured by sensors in the headphones, which then transition between modes. The device has a four-hour battery life in low-filtration mode and 1.5 hours in high-filtration mode, according to Pocket-lint.
A breath of fresh air
“Air pollution is a worldwide issue that affects us all,” said head engineer Jake Dyson. “The Dyson Zone filters the air you breathe while you’re on the run.”
Unlike face masks, it combines high-performance filters and two miniaturised air pumps to create a plume of fresh air that does not come into contact with your face.” The non-contact aspect was “important” to the designers in order to eliminate discomfort and irritation.
It was also the Dyson engineers’ first foray into the world of audio. For the past six years, the product has been under development. The Dyson Zone was created over the course of six years and 500 prototypes. The motor and internal workings were originally placed in a backpack with a snorkel-style mouthpiece.
The end outcome was described as “bizarre” by The Verge, who stressed that it was not an April Fool’s joke.
“We’ll have to see if purchasers are willing to accept this really odd-looking item,” it said, “while mask-wearing has become considerably more prevalent in the previous two years.”
