If you’ve been wondering when you might finally change up your vacuuming routine after seeing one of the more viral AR videos on social media recently, Dyson has you covered, as it’s actually making the thing for the iPhone and one of its apparently expensive stick vacuums.
Shopify’s Lead XR Engineer Daniel Beauchamp is no stranger to prototyping weird and wild AR/VR input schemes, though you may be more familiar with his latest approach to AR cleaning that made the rounds on social media earlier this year, which uses a Quest Pro with a touch controller attached to ad hoc setting for ‘space vacuuming’.
Spatial vacuuming
Never miss a spot again! pic.twitter.com/VJlHaY9XIJ
— Daniel Beauchamp (@pushmatrix) January 23, 2024
Now it seems Dyson has realized just how useful such an AR app would be by allegedly presenting his own take on Beauchamp’s viral prototype.
Called the Dyson CleanTrace, the AR vacuuming system is a mobile setup, which critically uses no headset—rather an iPhone 12 Pro or later, a custom phone holder, and the Dyson Gen5detect stick vacuum ($900).
Check it out in action below:
Aside from using a LiDAR-equipped iPhone for the AR pass, another difference is how the app allows you to digitally ‘paint’ when clearing an area instead of a visual wash like Beauchamp’s prototype. For starters, the company claims it’s actually inspired by its 360 Vis NavT line of robotic vacuums, but the resemblance is still pretty uncanny.
“We realized that we could all learn something from a methodical approach to cleaning our robot vacuums. “Unlike most human cleaners, Dyson robots know where they are in the room, where they’ve been and where they need to go,” said Charlie Park, Dyson Home VP of Engineering. “With Dyson CleanTrace, we’re adding this extra layer of cleaning intelligence to the Gen5detect vacuum. It gives you the ability to see where you’ve cleaned and where you haven’t, which, combined with our built-in particle sensor technology, provides proof that the floor really is clean.”
Dyson is making its CleanTrace technology available from June 2024, which includes the release of its custom phone clamp, offered directly by Dyson.