Dyson has announced a new smartphone app that shows you exactly where you've cleaned in real-time. This clever Augmented Reality (AR) tool should reduce the number of missed spots to zero. It also means you'll never go over the same spot twice, so you'll only spend the exact amount of time required to clean your floors.
Dubbed Dyson CleanTrace, the nifty smartphone app will work with any Dyson Gen5 Detect cordless vacuum cleaner, which was first announced back in October 2022. The Gen5 Detect was the first to equip a laser onto the motorised roller-head to illuminate minuscule dust particles that are invisible to the naked eye — so you can be sure you've thoroughly cleaned every surface.
Dyson recently announced a new Submarine attachment for its cordless vacuums that uses a pressurised jet of water to mop the floor. A second reservoir collects any leftover liquid, leaving your floors dry. Dyson says the use of pressurised water means you'll be able to cover 110m2 without stopping to refill the reservoir.
The incoming Dyson CleanTrace app uses a few different technologies to visualise the exact path you've already taken with your vacuum.
Using Augmented Reality (AR) the CleanTrace app will show a purple stripe where the Dyson vacuum head has already travelled in your home
DYSON PRESS OFFICE
First up, it relies primarily on LiDAR — the depth-sensing system originally developed by NASA used to create the bokeh-style blur behind a subject in Portrait Mode photos — to map your room.
As such, it won't be compatible with every handset, since LiDAR is only available on a few models, primarily from Apple. Dyson hasn't confirmed the exact models that will be compatible with CleanTrace when it launches.
There's a dedicated phone mount for your vacuum, so you can see the display as you push the vacuum around the room. On-screen, the app will overlay your cleaning pathways using AR, showing you where you have cleaned and what you have missed.
When you’ve finished vacuuming, you can scan the room with your phone to identify gaps so you never miss a spot. The existing technology within the Dyson Gen5 Detect senses and counts the dust particles, showing proof of a deep clean.
The Dyson CleanTrace app was developed after research from Dyson showed its customers regularly overestimated the amount of time they spent cleaning – with its data shows that around 80% of cleaning sessions last less than 10 minutes, yet people claim they vacuum for an average of 24 minutes per session. Moreover, most people are pretty haphazard and inefficient, regularly covering the same areas multiple times and missing other spots altogether, which led the engineers to start to put together what would become CleanTrace.
Speaking about the new launch, Vice President of Engineering for Dyson Home, Charlie Park said: "We realised that we could all learn a thing or two from the methodical cleaning approach of our robot vacuums.
"Unlike most humans doing the cleaning, Dyson robots know where they are in the room, where they have been, and where they have yet to go. With the Dyson CleanTrace, we add this extra layer of cleaning intelligence to the Gen 5 Detect vacuum. It gives you the ability to see where you have and haven’t cleaned, which, combined with our on-board particle sensing technology, gives proof that the floor is truly clean.”
Dyson will offer a mount for your iPhone that transforms it into a screen to visualise exactly where you've cleaned in your home — and where you've still got to go
DYSON PRESS OFFICE
The Dyson CleanTrace will be available sometime in June 2024, we'll share the exact date as soon as we know more. In the meantime, the compatible Gen 5 Detect vacuum is available in the UK now, with prices starting from £849.99.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
It's been a busy few months for the British brand, which announced the first major redesign to its award-winning Supersonic hair dryer since its launch eight years ago. The new Supersonic Nural can intelligently change its heat and airflow settings as soon as you connect an attachment and will automatically power down when you put it down.
