Tag Archives: dyson

Dyson’s new hair-straightener shows the company’s innovative approach to problem-solving

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A bladeless fan. Why would you need one? Have you ever thought about how a fan chops up the wind as its blades cut through the air? Or how fan blades generate static, attracting dust and making them dirty in a matter of just weeks? Chances are these small experience gaps elude most people, designers even. Dyson’s Bladeless Fan’s design was aimed at providing a constant source of ‘un-buffeted’ air. Throw in its ‘air multiplier’ and you’ve got a fan that’s incredibly powerful relative to its size, and easy to clean. When working on a new product, Dyson’s design team often looks for these experiential gaps and plugs them. Take for instance their recently launched AirWrap hair curler, which perfectly curls locks using a ‘tornado of air’ rather than a heated rod. Dyson’s products speak of a user-experience like no other because their design team approaches problems like no other, looking for more effective lateral solutions rather than simply designing a better version of existing technology.

A single hair is often considered a metaphor for thin-ness. Saying someone won the 100-meter dash by a hair’s breadth would imply that the competition was incredibly close. However, when combined, a lock of hair actually has volume. The multiple strands of hair actually band together to create thickness, so why are hair-straighteners almost always designed to ‘flatten’ your hair against two heated plates?

The Dyson Coralle hair-straightener, which launches today, features flexing plates that bend according to your hair’s volume. The flexing plates curve around the locks of hair, heating them evenly from all sides, while making sure to straighten them without flattening or damaging them. The curved copper plates, an industry first, come with tolerances as low as 65-nanometers (thinner than an individual human hair), and flex around your locks of hair to straighten them without reducing their volume. On the inside, the Coralle comes with a maximum heat setting that’s 40 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than most straighteners. Dyson’s engineers say that with the curved plates that distribute heat evenly, the straightener actually works just as efficiently as regular straighteners, with lesser heat. Moreover, the Coralle’s internal chip performs temperature checks 100 times per second to make sure it performs optimally with no temperature or performance deviations. The Coralle is designed to be wireless too, allowing you to use the straightener in front of a mirror without worrying about whether there’s a power source nearby, and comes with a maximum run time of 30 minutes, long enough to straighten your hair perfectly, and short enough to make sure it doesn’t cause any problems if accidentally left on! Now THAT’s called effective problem solving achieved through lateral thinking!

Designer: Dyson

Here’s what Dyson’s ‘air-purifying’ headphones could (possibly) look like…

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Is it just great timing or what? Just earlier this month, Dyson filed for a patent that brings its air-purifying technology to a smaller, more portable scale. The company famous for making some of the most powerful vacuums, fans, and hair-dryers in the world just disclosed in a patent that they may be working on a portable, wireless pair of headphones with air-purifiers built right into them. Based on those patent files, here’s a concept that brings those visuals and Dyson’s form language together into something that isn’t just a bunch of line-drawings. It’s important to point out that this is just a concept created to help people visualize the product, and isn’t connected to the Dyson brand.

Say hello to the Air-Purifying Headphones. Armed with around-ear cups on both sides, and a dual-headband design on the top, the Air-Purifying Headphones have a unique way of combining air-filtering with audio-playback. The upper headband swivels forward to cover the face, and features the iconic bladeless-fan-style form that helps route air directly to the nose and mouth. The headphones house a powerful motor and filter located within the left and right cups, drawing air from the grilles on the outside and channeling them through and out of the headband’s air-outlets. According to the patent, the purifying headphones would feature propellers that spin at 12,000 rpm and draw in 1.4 liters of air per second each to filter particles like dust and bacteria. A key requirement of the motors would be to function quietly, allowing the headphones to offer great audio playback too.

Apparently, Dyson’s been working on wearable purifier tech for a while now. The company’s seen great growth in its purifier department in countries like Asia, where less-than-desirable air-quality has made owning home-air-purifiers rather commonplace. Shanghai was the top-selling city for Dyson’s purifiers in 2017. With its wearable purifiers, the company hopes to work on a personal level, rather than a spatial one. Headphones and face-masks are perhaps two of the most commonly worn face-accessories outdoors, so combining the two into a singular product could actually be a pretty good idea. Besides, the swiveling headband and its hollow design may just help people unlock their phones with their faces while breathing clean air… a feature that isn’t possible with traditional face-masks.

Given that this concept was developed off patent-drawings, it’s difficult to say if Dyson’s headphones would even remotely resemble these renders… that’s if they do plan on releasing them. Details on the headphones, its functions, and its price aren’t available either, but the fact that the company’s invested in shrinking its air-purifying technology to fight pollution on a more dedicated, personal level – that’s definitely something worth lobbying behind!

Designer/Visualizer: Sarang Sheth

Disclaimer: The Dyson Air-Purifying Headphones are a conceptual render aimed at visualizing public-domain patent files. These renders aren’t affiliated with or connected to the Dyson brand in any way.

Patent Files via United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office

Dyson patents a wearable air purifier that doubles as headphones

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If you use public transportation, you know just how gross the air can be. Commuters are constantly coughing and sneezing, which releases thousands of germs into the air. Taking a flight can be even worse, thanks to the recycled air. And that's not to...

Dyson’s shape-shifting lamp mimics candlelight for just $650+

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Dyson's newest light, the Lightcycle Morph, is its most flexible lamp yet. At first glance, it looks similar to the Dyson Lightcycle, introduced last year, and it has many of the same key features -- like the ability to automatically adjust based on...

Dyson’s latest air purifier captures and destroys formaldehyde in your home!

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We are all aware of the adverse levels of air pollution in public places, on the streets, in our cities, basically everywhere except our homes. But here’s a little shocker; our homes aren’t completely free from aerial pollution….yet!  One of the many guaranteed pollutants in our homes is Formaldehyde. It’s usually released in our homes from a variety of sources: furniture, wood products, air fresheners, electronics, cleaning products and so on and so forth. Formaldehyde present in substantial amounts can cause irritation to our eyes, nose, and throat. It has been classified as a cancer-causing substance, but the research in this field is yet to bear concrete results. This where Dyson’s latest product the Pure Hot + Cool Cryptomic comes in. It promises to not only capture the Formaldehyde that’s been released in the air but also to destroy it. Whereas Dyson’s previous air purifiers could only capture the gas, the Cryptomic has taken ten steps forward. Famous for its bladeless fan, Dyson’s latest air purifiers display the same unique design while projecting purified air across a 360-degree angle.

“Our chemist team has been searching for various methods to solve this problem for the past three years,” said Dr. Nathan Brown, head of research at Dyson. “We have tested more than 20 different catalysts – materials that would enable a chemical reaction to take place, but isn’t consumed or used up by the reaction. We ultimately identified the mineral Cryptomelane as the ideal catalyst.” This very catalyst panel is what differentiates the Cryptomic from its predecessors. The panel consists of almost a billion tunnels which capture the Formaldehyde gas.

In fact, Dyson has even gone ahead and explained the process to us:
“There is an oxygen-rich surface on the catalyst that works to destroy formaldehyde by removing electrons during the chemical reaction causing it to break into the smaller, safer molecules – carbon dioxide and water,” the company said in a statement. “The amount of carbon dioxide and water that results from this process is very small. For reference, the technology panel produces 20,000x less water and CO2 than a mouse gives off breathing per day.”

The newly introduced filter of Crytopmic never has to be removed nor replaced, lasting as long as the purifier itself, however, the carbon and HEPA filters do need to be replaced every twelve months. The purifier can be synched to the Dyson Link app (compatible with Android and IOS) which displays the current air quality, as well as the temperature and humidity in your city.

Though the question arises “Is Formaldehyde a dominant enough threat for us to consider?” Research does indeed show that it irritates our respiratory system. There are simpler (non-monetary) alternatives to rid our homes of this pollutant, but those will last only for a short period of time and the gas can never be completely eradicated. In such a scenario, the Cryptomic with it’s guaranteed functionality to destroy Formadelhyde does seem like a safer bet, though it may be a costlier one. With issues like climate change, global warming and pollution looming even closer on the horizon, I don’t think any of us would mind living in a pollutant-free zone at home, and we have the Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Cryptomic to help us with that!

This Dyson-inspired motorcycle concept is blowing our minds!

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It’s been almost 10 years since James Dyson’s consumer electronics company first introduced its bladeless fan! Known as the Dyson Air Multiplier, it shook up the tech world with its unusual characteristic: it did not have any visible blades. The impact felt by this innovation is being felt even today, as seen in Saharudin Busri’s Dyson Inspired Concept Motorcycle. Though it is still a concept, it did incite a tangible excitement when we first got a glimpse of the design! Mimicking Dyson’s bladeless fan, Busri decided to remove the spokes of the wheel from his bike, leaving the center of the wheel completely hollow. An added homage to Dyson would be the fact that the engine is also inspired by the aesthetics of the motor we see in most of their vacuum cleaners such as the latest V11 model.

A flowing strip of metal makes up the fairing of the bike, extending till the engine space to give it a sleek and cohesive look. Blue, silver, and red were the designer’s colors of choice, with hues of black and three slim lines forming the headlight, giving us a Tron- inspired feeling. The brake light is interesting as it gives the impression of a floating design. The tire treads consist of an unconventional dotted pattern. The result is a lean, mean machine that has all the aesthetics of a designer we adore and the futuristic appeal we crave. Though the seat does look a little uncomfortable, we must admire the fact that what started off as a mere sketch, was converted into this gorgeous render that has us amazed that someday, hopefully, we get to see this as a fully functioning motorbike!

Designer: Saharudin Busri