From industrial emissions and car exhausts to bacteria and allergens, city air can be high in pollutants. While industries and cities are working to lower their air pollution, Dyson’s engineers have created a way to purify your own air. Their final product? The Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones.

The Dyson Zone is a set of over-ear headphones that tackle the damage that air pollution has on individuals. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 9 in 10 people globally breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline pollutant limits.

To combat this, Dyson Zone’s negatively charged electrostatic filter media captures ultrafine particles like allergens and particles from brake dust and construction; a potassium-enriched carbon layer captures city gas pollutants like NO2 and SO2. The compressors in each earcup draw air through the dual-layer filters and project two streams of purified air to the wearer’s nose and mouth, channeling it through the visor. 

The contact-free visor allows the filter to sit close to the face without touching it, so breathing feels neutral and comfortable. A continuous stream of purified air travels around the visor to your nose and mouth and exits through the mesh into the clean air bubble. For increased comfort, Dyson Zone distributes weight over the sides of the head. Its ear and headphone cushions are also molded for optimal sealing, attenuation, stability, and comfort. 

In addition to air pollution, the Dyson Zone also filters noise pollution. Its active noise cancellation technology cancels unwanted noise from the headphones such as planes, construction sites, and traffic. This delivers immersive, high-fidelity sound without disturbance. 

These innovative headphones are a result of over six years of research on air pollution, personal purification, noise cancellation, comfort, and air filtration. 

To aid this research, Dyson engineers developed a mannequin with a set of mechanical lungs programmed to breathe like a human. This allowed the engineers to accurately measure the correct amount of airflow humans need to enter through the headphones. To further test the headphones, Dyson engineers have put them to the test in warmer and higher-humidity climates, as well as temperature-controlled chambers. 

The Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones will be available in the Fall of 2022.