Dyson reveals air purifying headphones that block pollution

The vacuum company Dyson has just announced its new over-ear headphones that include an air-purifier for your mouth. A little dystopian, but a novel example of how we’ll need to adapt with a changing climate and world.

Dyson has just unveiled a new set of headphones that include an air-purifying mouth visor. They allow users to listen to music on the go while also breathing in clean air.

The nifty new tech is called ‘Dyson Zone’ and will be available from August. We don’t have a price just yet, though reviewers do not expect it to be cheap.

Each set of headphones ships with a face covering that slots into the visor, and can be linked to an app that tracks your location and specifies when a filter needs replacing.

According to Dyson, the headphones have between one and four hours of battery life, depending on which level of filtration you opt for. Not hugely ideal if you’re used to wired headphones or bulky Bluetooth sets with tens of hours of battery life, but still.

Chief engineer, Jack Dyson, said the product was a solution to the ‘global problem’ of air pollution that ‘affects us everywhere we go’.

The Dyson Zone took six years and five hundred prototypes to put together, and originally featured a snorkel-esque mouthpiece attached to a backpack. It’s probably for the best that those elements were eventually scrapped, as it’s unlikely many would have been on board with donning scuba gear every time they listened to their morning playlist.

The Verge was quick to roast the announcement, describing the Dyson Zone as ‘bizarre’, though it did call it ‘ambitious’ too. According to the publication’s reviewer, the tech is noticeably ‘heavy’, and points out that it is ‘bigger and bulkier’ than many similar products currently available on the market.