Dyson's AR feature turns vacuuming into a real-life cleaning game

Dyson's new CleanTrace technology will show you where you have (and haven't) vacuumed

(Credit: Dyson)

• 🎮 Dyson’s new CleanTrace feature adds gamification to vacuuming

• 👀 The AR tech shows where you’ve vacuumed and where you haven’t

• 📱It’ll work with your smartphone if it has LiDAR

• 📆 It’s out in June but only works with the pricey Dyson Gen5detect

Dyson’s new AR feature could make the common household chore of vacuuming a lot more engaging.

Dubbed ‘CleanTrace’, Dyson’s new technology creates a purple overlay that shows the path the vacuum has taken and provides a clear picture of where you have (and haven’t) cleaned.

You won’t need to wear an Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest headset to use it, either. Instead, it uses your smartphone to give you an AR perspective of the areas you might have missed, but it’ll need a LiDAR scanner to work. Dyson will also be releasing a CleanTrace phone clamp to keep your smartphone in place while you vacuum.

Dyson says CleanTrace was inspired by its own robot vacuum mapping technology. “We realized that we could all learn a thing or two from the methodical cleaning approach of our robot vacuums,” said Dyson’s VP of engineering Charlie Park. “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.”

As someone who enjoys gamification to help motivate me to complete mundane tasks, Dyson’s CleanTrace feature is bound to be popular. It should also ensure you aren’t missing any spots, as Dyson has said its research has shown people greatly overestimate the amount of time they spend vacuuming.

Dyson CleanTrace is scheduled to launch in June this year but currently, only one vacuum supports the AR feature: the Dyson Gen5detect, which is one of Dyson’s most expensive models.

Still, it’s likely the CleanTrace feature could become a standard feature in the future, making cleaning more fun and effective for those who use it.