Who needs a face mask? Dyson has announced its first wearable product that builds the firm’s air purification expertise into a set of Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones aimed at city dwellers wanting to avoid polluted air. It delivers purified air to the mouth and nose while simultaneously tackling noise pollution through its active noise cancelling technology.
Cancels out noise and air pollution? Sounds great! But there is one drawback, because unlike anything the company has made before, the Dyson Zone is sure to draw quizzical looks. It’s a set of large, plush headphones with a plastic mask-type contraption that connects from ear-to-ear across the wearer’s mouth and looks like something out of a Hannibal Lecter dream.
Chief engineer Jake Dyson said: “Air pollution is a global problem – it affects us everywhere we go. In our homes, at school, at work and as we travel, whether on foot, on a bike or by public or private transport. 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.”
The eyebrow-raising design has a motor, compressor fan and air purifying dual-layer filter in each ear cup. The air is drawn through the filters cleaning it of 99% of particles as small as 0.1 microns, including pollen, bacteria and dust, as well as gas pollutants such as sulphur or nitrogen dioxide. The filtered air is then pushed along the inside of a visor, which sits just in front of the mouth and nose without making contact with the skin, creating a pocket of clean air for the wearer to breathe.
The headphones have sensors that detect how fast the wearer is moving, automatically adjusting the airflow between three intensity levels to ensure they deliver up to 5 liters of clean air a second, the equivalent breathing rate of a jog. An air quality sensor in the left ear cup monitors real-time pollution levels sending the data to an app on your phone and telling you when to replace the filters, which should last for about 12 months of use in Europe or less in more polluted environments.
The visor has size-adjustable arms and is attached to the headphones via magnets that can be unclipped or unhinged so that it drops down to the wearer’s chin pausing the fans to allow them to speak to others. Dyson also has an additional mask attachment that sits between the visor and face, including a FFP2 filter, developed in response to the masking requirements of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile active noise cancellation technology, similar to that found in Bose, Sony and other headphones popular with commuters, uses microphones to monitor the sound of the outside world and the spinning compressors either side of the wearer’s head to remove it via anti-sound waves played into the ear cups. The headphones can be used without purification by detaching the visor too.
The battery lasts up to 4.5 hours at the Zone’s lowest purification rate or 90 minutes at maximum, intended to only be used for short periods. They last up to 40 hours when used just as headphones, fast charge via USB-C to 60% in 20 minutes and can be used when charging if required.
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