Dyson Announces Wearable Air Purifier With Built-In Noise-Cancelling Headphones

Dyson Announces Wearable Air Purifier With Built-In Noise-Cancelling Headphones

The company’s most unusual product yet, was deliberated in 2016

Multinational technology company Dyson has announced a wearable air purifier with a pair of built-in noise-cancelling headphones.

However, the Zone headphones do not include specifics about cost, battery life, or the headset’s weight.

In 2016, the company deliberated on developing some kind of ‘purification on the move’ technology. During the initial trials in the smoggy city of Beijing, Dyson decided to integrate noise-cancelling headphones.

It designed the headset so the air filters could be placed in the earcups, minimizing some of the unusual bulkiness in previous prototypes. In its final form, the Zone uses a visor to channel “a continuous stream of purified air” in the user’s nose and mouth, without touching the face, that will address the stuffiness issue.

A separate attachment will also be offered to allow consumers to turn the headphones into a sealed, full-contact mask.

The company stated that the two-stage purification system was “capable of filtering city fumes and pollutants” and included a miniaturized version of Dyson’s existing air purification technology.

To be replaced after a year, each filter was capable of filtering 99 percent of particle pollution, depending on the usage.

The product follows Public Health England’s warning that air pollution is the single biggest environmental threat to health in the UK. About 28,000 to 36,000 deaths are attributed to long-term exposure a year.

However, some reviewers claimed that despite the music and the noise-cancelling technology, the whirring of the air purification units was still audible.