James Dyson made a name for himself by inventing the bagless vacuum cleaner. Since then his company branched out into everything from washing machines and cordless cleaners to bladeless fans and air purifiers. Now a new patent application reveals Dyson wants to make headphones that also combat air pollution.

As Bloomberg reports, the patent is titled "A wearable air purifier" and the diagrams reveal what looks very much like a standard pair of headphones. However, Dyson intends to embed a fan and purifying device inside each earphone. The fans spin at 12,000 rpm allowing for 1.4 liters of air to be filtered through each earphone every second.

The purified air is then directed via perforated air jets towards the wearer's mouth, allowing them to breathe in air free of pollutants. Dyson claims it can produce 2.4 liters of purified air per second, which should be more than enough to keep up with even heavy breathing. If you've got an office full of people wearing these headphones it wouldn't take long for the entire office space to be turned into a clean air zone.

Dyson views the headphone design as a superior solution to face masks, which end up covering the mouth and nose making them less socially acceptable. There's also neck worn purifiers, but Dyson states in the patent application that they are "generally less effective at limiting the user's exposure to airborne pollutants" when compared to the best-performing face masks.

A patent application is no guarantee that a product will make it to market, but it's hard to argue against this being a good idea. Increasingly people walk around wearing headphones to listen to music or podcasts as they travel. With air pollution becoming a bigger problem in all major cities, the promise of purified air while you listen would surely shift a lot of product (even at Dyson prices).

There are two problems I see with these Dyson headphones. The first is the potential for background noise. Having two fans spinning at 12,000 rpm right next to your ears surely won't be silent. Maybe Dyson has found a way to use that background audio as a form of noise cancellation? The second is one of power. I suspect these headphones will require quite a lot of power to keep those fans spinning, which means either plugging them in to a power outlet or having a separate battery pack to keep them portable. There's no way a battery inside the earphones would be big enough to offer decent battery life.

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