Vacuum cleaners of the robot kind are about to have some serious new competition. Dyson presented a new robotic vacuum cleaner at an event in Tokyo on Thursday called the 360 Eye.
The 360 Eye has some great features that could possibly set it apart from other, lower end, robotic vacuum cleaners.
For instance, the 360 Eye has a robotic “eye”, a camera, that sees more accurately the area that needs to be cleaned, as well as infared sensors. It actually maps the area out and plots its course.
The vacuum cleaner then locates the center of the room and begins spiraling outward. It cleans 10 square feet at a time, then moves to the next 10.
The infared sensors keep the vacuum cleaner from bumping pets and table legs.
Being a Dyson, it inherently has super cyclonic suction power that claims to be stronger than any other robot vacuum and to be able to suck up particles as small as pollen. In addition to that, there is suction all across the front of the vacuum.
Another thing that differentiates the Dyson 360 Eye vacuum cleaner from the competition are the wheels, or in this case, lack of wheels.
The Dyson vacuum cleaner uses a continual tread mechanism instead of wheels that can get stuck or go off course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo-ZXw2k-4
The most fun and techy part of the new vacuum cleaner is that the Dyson’s 360 Eye can be controlled by an app available on iOS and Android platforms. The apps allow it to be controlled and scheduled from a smartphone.
Of course there downsides to everything, with the Dyson 360 Eye vacuum cleaner being no exception.
For starters, the price. While no official price for what it will cost in the US has been released yet it will reportedly cost about 130,000 yen in Japan, where it will be released early next year. That is about $1,237 if they stick to that price for its US release later next year.
Ouch.
Also, the battery life isn’t that great, running about 20-30 minutes on a charge.
It will be interesting to see how the 360 Eye fares alongside much cheaper, but lower end, competing vacuum cleaners.