Small autonomous vacuuming robots are really nothing new, Roomba has been doing it since 2002. But Roomba always felt like a gimmick more than a viable and usable product. Dyson is aiming to transcend that gimmick with The Eye.
For the past 16 years Dyson has been experimenting, testing and ironing out its entry into robotic vacuuming. The company felt it was better to research and develop their product before actually releasing it to the public. They did almost release the Dyson DC06 in 2001, but pulled it from production due to high costs and operation challenges.
“We didn’t want to put out a gimmick,” Sir James tells WIRED. He says that meant inventing a new way for the vacuum to navigate. “Accurate navigation is the key to cleaning properly,” says Dyson. “I don’t just mean in coverage, but in terms of not going over the same spot twice, because if you do that you’re wasting the battery’s power.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OadhuICDAjk
The new Dyson 360 Eye has a camera mounted in it that sits at 45 degrees and basically maps out the room to determine the best path and pattern to take to accomplish the cleaning task. The Eye also comes with Dyson’s promise of suction and cleaning power, something they push heavily and are proud of in their other lines. The Eye has a motor that spins at 104,000 RPM and has 20 times the suction of other robot vacuums.
“When you go into a room, you see there’s a corner of the table you might bump into and you know roughly how far away you are, and you can judge from it,” says Dyson. “I’m talking about the decisions you make from what you see and what you’re able to gauge. That’s precisely what our robot does with its 360-degree camera.” Once it’s covered the entire floor, it scoots back into its charging dock.We always believed we should clean properly, and cleaning properly means you’ve got to put a lot of power and brush suction.
As stated before, Roomba always felt like a gimmick more than a functional well working piece of machinery. The Dyson 360 Eye looks to be more than that and perhaps will be. The Eye will be released in Japan first next spring and pricing has not been announced. What do you think of Dyson’s newest vacuum? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.wired.com/2014/09/dyson-releases-the-eye-a-robot-vacuum-with-a-360-degree-camera/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source (and photos): Wired[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
