Dyson has created an unusual set of headphones that include a purifying visor designed to help people avoid polluted air in cities.
They are called the Dyson Zone. It is a wearable device that combines noise-canceling over-ear headphones and a visor that sits just in front of the nose and mouth, delivering filtered air.
In tests, Dyson Zone successfully filtered two virus types from the air, although it wasn’t tested on SARS?CoV?2, the virus that causes Covid.
Dyson Zone will be available on sale in the autumn. Its price is not confirmed yet.
‘Air pollution is a global problem – it affects us everywhere we go,’ said Jake Dyson, the company’s chief engineer and son of company founder and billionaire entrepreneur Sir James Dyson.
‘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, using high-performance filters and two miniaturized air pumps.
Dyson said the device takes inspiration from ‘the shape and design of a horse’s saddle’, by distributing weight over the sides of the head, rather than on the top.
The firm says: ‘A saddle typically curves over the horse’s spine distributing the load through contact with the areas left and right of the backbone – a format used for the central cushion on the headband.’
Compressors in each ear draw air through built-in filters, which capture ultrafine particles such as allergens and brake dust.
The filters capture 99 percent of particles as small as 0.1 microns, including pollen, dust, and bacteria, along with viruses.
The filters have been tested on the viruses MS2 bacteriophage and H1N1 influenza.
A potassium-enriched carbon layer, also in the ear caps, captures city gas pollutants like nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
