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Dyson Launches Air Purifying Bluetooth Headphones (theguardian.com) 67

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
happy monday writes: 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. Quite unlike anything the company has made before, the Dyson Zone is sure to draw quizzical looks. It is 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 sci-fi movie. It delivers purified air to the mouth and nose while simultaneously tackling noise pollution through its active noise cancelling technology. 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 litres of clean air a second, the equivalent breathing rate of a jog.
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Dyson Launches Air Purifying Bluetooth Headphones

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  • I need headphones that can make me a sandwich and bring me a cold beer. Difficulty: must be able to remove cap from beer bottle.

    • I need headphones that can make me a sandwich and bring me a cold beer.

      You'll probably need to use them with sudo [xkcd.com] ... :-)

    • I need headphones that can make me a sandwich and bring me a cold beer.

      That's what a girlfriend is for...

  • Rich retarded white people gadget.

    • Eh, it's basically an iPhone accessory.

    • I was picturing more Asian people using it (maybe a picture in the article sent my mind there). Like Japan or Hong Kong.

      With masks already being an accepted part of their culture when you're sick, or to prevent yourself from getting sick. And the lower personal space expectations (cramming people onto trains).

      It's probably just a matter of time until you get something with an O2 supply too.

  • But considering the fact we're probably stuck with Covid and there's a need to cancel the noise from all the constant protesters (or people just giving you shit for wearing a mask), this seems like a timely product. Embrace the dystopian, Dyson.

    • Dysontopian?

    • It's basically a high tech dust mask, the sort you use for yard work, not painting a car or with particulates that can harm you. I don't see what's so dystopian about that. Seasonal allergies are a bitch, and there's lots of occupations where you wear those sorts of masks through the day. These look more comfortable than the little ones with two elastic band straps. It depends on your filtration needs, but that's a spectrum.

      Yah I'm sorry, but any real nerd that's ever had to wear dust masks has been thi

      • I agree. I'm a janitor in a Community Centre, so I'll continue wearing masks as standard daily PPE for the foreseeable future. I also wear a pair of headphones all day so I can listen to audiobooks while I work. Combining these two into a single unit appeals to me. I'll probably throw an N95 on over it to filter the air moving away from me, but I can loop those over the earpieces like I do now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Kind of amazing that they released something that blows COVID onto everyone around the wearer right now. There is zero filtration of exhaled air, only fast moving air too carry the droplets far and wide.

  • Call me old, stupid, whatever. That design is fugly to the nth degree. I mean, maybe the functionality is cool, but I'd be too busy calling myself a dorky nerd every time I caught my reflection in a monitor to get any work done. It's like a nerd helmet with a facemask. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

    There ya go, Dyson. Me calling it ugly will probably be the seed of the universe being swept up in the mania of it. You're welcome.

    • Call me old, stupid, whatever. That design is fugly to the nth degree.

      Question: do you play video games? If so, you have probably seen something similar in some kind of shooter game. Did you consider it fugly then?

      • Not much for video games myself and never have been. That said, combat gear is completely different from desk-wear for dorks.

        Ah, there we go. Paint the sucker in camouflage and they may be on to something.

    • It's like a nerd helmet with a facemask. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

      Just put an Apple logo on it.

  • I mean... these would have been useful or noteworthy a year ago. But now? My city is at 83% fully vaxed, with the state as a whole not far behind. And the rates are only even that low because there are still little kids not old enough, but who aren't particularly vulnerable to covid anyway. The people still catching it through all three shots are basically getting just a mild cold. (It happened to me last month.) The various masking, stay-at-home, and distancing mandates are gone, with the exception of

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pieroxy ( 222434 )

      Is this thing even remotely related to COVID? What are you talking about? Did you even read the summary?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GNious ( 953874 )

        Can't be; if used by anyone with any airborne disease, it'll blow particles everywhere

        Basically, it's a portable super-spreader event if used during anything akin to the COVID pandemic

    • The people still catching it through all three shots are basically getting just a mild cold.

      Most likely don't even notice. Some get some symptoms like with a cold. Then some, like a good friend of mine in his late 40s, get 3 days like a severe flu, then get better, then try to do sports like they used to a couple of months earlier, then they realise it's all too much, and now said friend is out of energy around 1pm, going to bed around 8pm, for over a month straight already and no improvement in sight...

  • ... if nobody was going to buy it. Dyson has a group of followers akin to "Appleites". Some of its followers will buy this, and the design may intrigue some people with throwaway money just to have another useless gadget. But of course I agree that it's completely fugly and useless.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lsllll ( 830002 )
      BTW, and completely off-topic, where have all the mod points gone on SD? I just looked at another thread with with 90+ comments and only 4 are modded above 2. Watch somebody mod me off-topic now to prove my point wrong.
  • Honestly, if they can put this kind of time and money into THIS, they should be able to wick away heat.

    I've become completely zen in tolerating the new "normal" of acceptable shared space being 72-74F from the original 68-72, but GOOD headphones I can only tolerate for about an hour and change.

    Dyson - great vacs, expensive everything else. Maybe Vornado will do better with their foray into the audio market.
  • Dyson have definitely blow-dried the shark.

  • "The Dyson Zone is due to go on sale in the Autumn for an as-yet unannounced premium price expected to be in the £500 to £1,000 range."

    Well, that sounds reasonable. /s

    • Seriously, why are people still putting up with articles like this? Between now and Autumn there's a very real possibility that this will get cancelled and never "launch" at all. Can you imagine how many buyers are going to get run over by buses due to the combination of air purifying and noise cancelling? If anything "street headphones" should be intentionally open to avoid unnecessary risks even if it compromises on sound quality.

      • Open back headphones are often higher audio quality than closed back because they can allow the drivers more balanced excursion. I have a few pairs of them I use when mixing music. Closed back are more about not polluting the room with what you're listening to.

    • "The Dyson Zone is due to go on sale in the Autumn for an as-yet unannounced premium price expected to be in the £500 to £1,000 range."

      Well, that sounds reasonable. /s

      The summary is pretty ad-copyish (fairly standard for newspapers to reprint press releases with minor modifications), but I think it's an.... original?? enough product to warrant a /. post.

      Personally, I have no idea what the intended market is.

      Inside your home air quality should be good enough that these wouldn't help.

      Walking in nature the air quality is good, so you don't need it.

      And when exercising earbuds are the way to go. People with full headphones are already weird, but running around with that on yo

  • Might be a good idea except that it only filters air on the way in. So this is a tool for selfish folks only. Dyson shouldn't have brought this to market.

  • Analog connections have much better audio quality.

  • All those maskers nerds out there with their triple vax will love this. Who wants a cheap facemask when you can take out a mortgage on some overpriced Dyson kit to make yourself look doubly foolish? All Dyson needs to do now is make it alert the wearer when another human is within 2m so the neurotic can make a run for it to a covid safe space.

  • https://twitter.com/RealSexyCy... [twitter.com] points out -- rather selfish mentality. If you get the virus some other way, you are jus a walking virus fan.

  • Getting ahead of April Fool's Day, I see.
  • People needing this in any city is surly a sign that we live in a dystopian nightmare of a country.

  • For those among us who actually understand airflow, would this contraption really make the air you breath clean, or just sort of?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cstacy ( 534252 )

      It will provide you with nice fresh COVID-infested air.

      If the thing isn't sealed tight on your face, it isn't doing any filtering at all. That's why N95 masks have a seal with a chemically-treated reusable gasket. (And why you can't re-use them, and why they stop working the moment they get moist.) Most medical staff have to change their N95s several times a day. At $2.50 a pop, retail (since there's no shortage of them now).

      Cloth masks and those popular nylon-looking masks and all that other shit people we

  • Surely they can't be serious. Surely.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
  • Paid celebrities like Daft Punk and hip-hop stars to just randomly begin wearing them around.

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