Dyson is way more than a company that makes some of the world’s best vacuums, as evidenced by everything from its air purifiers to its lights. And now it could be entering the audio realm soon enough. As first reported by Bloomberg, Dyson has applied for a patent that shows the company integrating its air purifying technology into a pair of headphones.
The potential “wearable air purifier” looks to be a traditional pair of headphones, but with an extra headband-like band that runs across the wearer’s face. The patent shows that each individual ear cup will have air filters and a motor built into it, and then push filtered air towards the wearer’s mouth. Thus, they can breathe clean air as they’re out and about.
Dust and gas masks are obviously already a thing, but a wearable air purifier with some added functionality would certainly have some appear. Air pollution is a huge problem in many parts of the world under normal conditions, not to mention the increase in air polution from forest fires.
There are a lot of unknowns surrounding Dyson’s potential new product, however. The most notable one being if it’ll actually ever come to market. The theoretical products described in most patents don’t. But another big question mark is from an audio perspective. While the patent describes this devices as a pair of headphones with speakers, there’s no telling how they would sound. Not to mention the headphones would have to compete with the motors built into each ear cup, which will make noise, and that could be difficult.
We’ll just have to wait and see if this device ever comes out before we find out.
