If we learnt anything from Iran's closing of the Straits of Hormuz, it is the age-old tenet about how positions can be advantageous. As realtors are prone to utter: "location, location, location".
Take where Singapore is situated; it's perfect as a trading spot. Sitting at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, this is the shortest sea route that links East Asia to Europe and West Asia. Singapore also sits right smack in the middle of the Sunda Plate, instead of the boundary, which keeps the country safe from active tectonic sheenanigans. Also, tsunamis aren't an issue due to Indonesia blocking off any massive oceanic waves generated in the Indian Ocean.
But there is a trade-off.
Singapore isn't immune to the haze. Occasional slash-and-burn agricultural practices and prevailing winds carry the smoke from neighbouring countries. Between June and October, we get the brunt of it due to the southwest monsoon season, and with El Niño, these yearly periods get prolonged. Longer dry spells mean more chances for fires to happen. That's where Dyson enters the chat.
Add another to Dyson's domination for the home. Known for its motors (look, the general public would say that vacuums and hairdryers are what comes to mind but, you know what those two products have? Motors. Dyson's proprietary Hyperdymium motors.), the company delivers a new version from the Purifier Cool line: the Find+Follow Purifier Cool. It does everything that the Purifier Cool does (cooling and filtering the air), but this time it uses AI vision to follow your movements and direct airflow to where you are.
The Find+Follow Purifier Cool uses an advanced K-Carbon + HEPA filtration system that captures 50 per cent more nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) than previous models. Trapping odours, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and 99.95 per cent of ultrafine particles as small as 0.1 microns.
(To put it in perspective, 0.1 microns is the scale of viruses, teeny-tiny combustion particles, and cellular machinery. A human hair is 700 times thicker than 0.1 microns.)
Fully sealed to HEPA H13 standard, any particles captured will remain inside. An auto-sensing system monitors air quality across five measures: PM2.5, PM10, VOCs, NO₂, and formaldehyde, especially formaldehyde, which actively destroyed instead of being filtered out.
Normally, you have the Purifier Cool that uniformly cools the room. Turn on the oscillation mode and you have the fan direct airflow towards you, and then away... And then back to you, and then, away... You get the point. The Find+Follow Purifier Cool uses a 17-key point user detection system, where its AI tracks a person's movement and swivels automatically to direct purified airflow at you.
But what if there are multiple people in the room? The fan can detect everybody in a room, and divides its oscillation to share airflow evenly among them. (In testing the set, we had up to three bodies for the fan to deal with. So far, it's able to keep up with the number.) When it detects that the room has cleared out, the Find+Follow Purifier Cool stops.
If you're worried about privacy, no identifiable data is captured, stored or uploaded. All image processing happens on-device in real time, with images deleted immediately after analysis.
Other features of the Find+Follow Purifier Cool include Night Mode, which reduces noise by 50 per cent, and the display dims for an undisturbed sleep. As usual, the fan connects to the MyDyson app for remote control and monitoring.
Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool retails for SGD999.
