Sky. I love it, you love it. We all walk around here all day, filling our lungs and blood with the stuff. We can’t get enough of it. But that beautiful, delicious, life-saving air that you, me and your chinchilla need as a pet is sometimes bad. That’s right. The same air we rely on is sometimes filled with bad, little things. Things that would love nothing more than to fly up your nose and destroy your soft, unprotected insides.
In the past two years, air purifiers have seen a massive spike in sales here in the US, starting with a 57% increase in 2020. The pandemic, coupled with phenomena like the California wildfires, has prompted many to replace filters in to install their homes and offices. All along, Dyson’s engineers have been asking themselves one important question: what if we found a way to stick the air purifier on people’s faces? In a world where wearing a mask has become the status quo, maybe it’s not the most outspoken question?
Could be.
Image Credits: Dyson
The Dyson Zone is a beast. It has many of the hallmarks of Dyson’s much-loved product design, with the obvious (and not insignificant) difference that it’s designed to be strapped onto the wearer’s face. Or, more precisely, I think, strapped to headphones and carried over their mouths. Honestly, the basic form factor is most like a football helmet.
The final product will arrive after 500 prototypes over six years, according to the company. Dyson says:
Originally a snorkel-like mouthpiece for clean air coupled with a backpack to hold the motor and interior, the Dyson Zone air purifying headphones have evolved dramatically over its six years in development. More than 500 prototypes saw a motor initially placed in the neck become two compressors, one in each earcup and the evolution of the snorkel mouthpiece into an effective, non-contact visor that delivers clean air without contacting the entire face – a brand new clean air supply mechanism.
Image Credits: Dyson
The removable visor shoots a few filtered air streams to the user’s mouth and nose without coming into direct contact with the face. It is designed to filter out allergens, pollutants and other particles. Dyson makes no claims here about the Zone’s ability to filter out infections such as COVID. Instead, the product comes with an attachment that allows a user to wear a face covering in addition to the product. The headphones have three noise canceling modes and the front part has four air purification settings.
Exact pricing and availability are not yet available – which is a shame because I really want to know how much this thing is going to run. It will generally arrive in select markets sometime this fall. More information on all that is promised in the coming months.
This post Dyson bet you’ll want to strap an air purifier to your face – TechCrunch
was original published at “https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/29/dyson-is-betting-youll-want-to-strap-an-air-purifier-to-your-face/”
