[bots]

Dyson has taken its first step into wearable technology, with an eye-catching pair of over-ear headphones that come with an air-purifying mouth visor.

Best known for vacuum cleaners, Dyson has diversified in recent years with products such as fans and a hairdryer.

The headphones - dubbed Dyson Zone - are designed to tackle the growing issue of air pollution.

One reviewer said they would definitely "turn heads in the street".

Britta O'Boyle, deputy editor at gadget publication Pocket-lint, wrote: "Their design is certainly eye catching."

The sound quality was "excellent", she told the BBC News, and the headphones had a "lovely construction".

But as she had been unable to test the product outdoors, she could not say how effectively it would purify air or "how silly you feel wearing it".

The headphones go on sale in the autumn.

"We don't expect them to be cheap," O'Boyle added.

The noise-cancelling headphones come with a motor, fan and air filters in each ear cup.

Air is sucked through the filters, capturing allergens and pollutants such as nitrogen and sulphur dioxide and brake dust.

And this purified air is then channelled to the nose and mouth via the visor, which is magnetically attached to the bottom of the headphones.

It is 97% effective at getting clean air to the lungs, the company says.

There are four purification modes, depending on whether the wearer is walking down a street or sitting down.

The headphones use sensors to track breathing and exertion and then toggle between modes.

They also come with:

an app that lets users specify their location and determines when the filter needs replacing

a face covering comes that slots into the visor

The product has four hours' battery life in low-filtration mode, according to Pocket-lint, or 1.5 hours in high filtration.

Chief engineer Jake Dyson said: "Air pollution is a global problem - it affects us everywhere we go."

"The Dyson Zone purifies the air your 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 miniaturised air pumps."

The non-contact aspect was a "must" for the designers, to avoid discomfort and irritation.

It was also a first foray into audio for Dyson engineers.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60927032

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will they vacuum up the market?

[Oliver_W]

Bet they suck.

[Oliver_W]

Sidebar but it really annoys me when "hoover" is used as a generic term for vacuum cleaners

[arista]

Will it be £500 to buy?

[arista]

[Dyson pitches Zone as being for city-dwellers but
while it says there will be a UK launch,
we believe it’s really a product for heavily polluted cities
in certain countries where smog is a problem.
Of course, London is a polluted city,
but will we really see these in regular use on the Tube?

That said, pre-pandemic, people in many large cities
did wear face masks to combat pollution.
So why not a visor attached to a pair of headphones?
But there’s no getting away from the fact it looks more
than a little bit space age and dystopian.]




Can you speak with it on?


https://www.stuff.tv/features/why-dy...ried%EF%BF%BC/