The Zone unveiled on Wednesday is the first wearable device from English manufacturer Dyson. It’s an “air-purifying headset”, a category of product we all didn’t know existed before today (and which even made us doubt for a moment if we were really on March 30 or April 1).
But why wear such a helmet rather than just a mask and a pair of headphones? This is the question we have tried to answer.
To face smog and pollution
This is the official reason behind the launch of the Dyson Zone. The device is in fact equipped with two mini compressors, one in each earpiece, which allows the air to be sucked in, filtered with a two-layer filter and directs a stream of purified air directly in front of our face in order to to create a bubble of fresh air.
An electrostatic filter captures ultra-fine particles (allergens, industrial dust, etc.), and the second layer of potassium-enriched carbon captures pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone (which we loves in the stratosphere, but hates on the ground).
Obviously, we agree that interest in the solution will not be the same in all cities and all countries. The Dyson Zone will indeed be more practical for a one-hour tuk-tuk highway in Delhi, India (the author of these lines and his lungs speak here from experience) than for a hike in Forillon Park in Gaspésie.
To protect others following eating shish taouk with garlic potatoes
Photo : Dyson.
The Zone is also an active noise canceling headset.
The Dyson Zone isn’t just an air purifier: it’s a full-fledged headset, promising high-fidelity sound and active noise-canceling technology (hopefully, considering that we have a compressor in front of each ear!). Moreover, you can wear the helmet without its “visor” – this is the name given by Dyson to the element in front of the face – which is practical for listening to music at home or in the office, for example.
That said, the visor also seems like a great way to send a clear message to others: I don’t want to talk to you (whether out of loneliness or to protect them from the smell of extra garlic potatoes that you ordered for lunch with your pita shish taouk).
To go to a (slightly) infectious area
Screenshot: Dyson.
The Dyson Zone filters 99% of particles larger than 0.1 microns, as well as several polluting gases.
Dyson doesn’t advertise the Zone’s effectiveness in preventing virus transmission, but in the company’s tests (for which air purification has been a favorite area for a few years now), the device would have been able to filter out the MS2 and H1N1 viruses. However, it has not been tested once morest coronaviruses. It must be said that its development required 500 prototypes in six years, and that it therefore began long before the pandemic.
Its filter captures 99% of pollution particles as small as 0.1 microns, according to the company’s measurements. An N95 mask, by comparison, captures 95% of particles down to 0.3 microns. No, it’s not a hazmat suit, but it should still increase the protection of the wearer.
The device will also be delivered with an accessory to hermetically close the design on the face of its wearer, in order to comply with the instructions for wearing the mask when they are in force.
Improving a Dune cosplay at the last minute
Photomontage : Maxime Johnson.
The Dyson Zone is not a Fremen mask.
In the universe Dunethe Fremen people wear a distille, an outfit that covers the body and allows water to be filtered, in particular thanks to a tube inserted into their nostrils and a mask that covers the mouth.
The Dyson Zone doesn’t fit into the nose directly, and it doesn’t pick up our moisture. In fact, it doesn’t look so much like the Fremen mask. This reason was above all an excuse to imagine what Timothée Chalamet would look like with the Dyson Zone.
To welcome the future
Photo : Dyson.
Frank, the dummy developed to test the effectiveness of the Dyson Zone.
Let’s face it: the present has so far been a little flat compared to the future imagined the last century. We’re still scanning the skies for flying cars, our Nike shoes aren’t latching on, and skateboards aren’t still floating in the air. We look outside, and the world hasn’t changed too much since 1985.
The Dyson Zone, however, has something particularly futuristic with its original design, its modern technologies (headphones with compressors inside, it’s still impressive) and its dystopian side.
While many wait for the return to life before, it seems that wearing the Dyson Zone is tantamount to declaring to others that the future is here, and that we are ready to adapt to it, for better or for worse. .
The Dyson Zone will launch in fall 2022, for a price that has yet to be announced.
