this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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Dyson gets shit on frequently for being overpriced, but the audible analysis they do one some of their products is crazy complex. Some years ago I watched 30 minute video on the design they did for the hair dryer where they were designing minute angles in the fins of the air impeller, and using a PWM algorithm to measure backpressure in a feed back loop to spin up the fan where it wouldn't create loud noise while also increasing the volume of air moved. They tuned the mechanisms specifically to shave off tiny peaks in oscilloscope readings.
One thing I remember is that they said they couldn't entirely eliminate the specific annoying sound frequencies because it had to ramp, but what they did is ramp to right below the annoying sound frequency level, then hold, then burst above the annoying frequency band very quickly. So the operator of the unit doesn't hear the annoying sound because the device shoots past it so fast.
I've never heard of any company be that picky and put so much effort into avoiding one negative experience of a product.
And then they go and make an idiotic bathroom hand air dryer that is vertical and unnatural to dip hands into and too small of an opening so as to be difficult to not touch it with your clean hands.
They released that original Airblade hand drying 18 years ago in 2006 way before the hair dryer.
11 years ago In 2013 they released the Airblade V which doesn't do the vertical dip thing.
Well, I see the old one 99 times more often than the new one.
I'm talking about this piece of crap design.
Maybe I've got small hands, but I've never had problems with them. I slightly cup my hands. At least it feels like they get dryer faster that way.
Haven't these been shown to be literally the proverbial shit hitting the fan in terms of spreading bacterial matter everywhere?
Yes they literally pull in particles from the bathroom air and blow them directly on your hands.
Plus a good chunk of people only wash hands for show: the water runs for 1 sec it barely touches their fingertips, then go on to these dryers and whatever is on their hands flies out everywhere.
Maybe it was just me but I never had issues with the u shaped dryers. Although I normally put my hands in by the side, wrists above, kept them flat, and drew out slowly. Dry hands every time.
Other dryers just end up pushing water to the dry side of your hand.
That came way before the hair dryer, no?
All this tells me is that they have a great PR department.
Wait until you find out the analysis they do on car door closing sounds and the clickiness of specific buttons! Industrial Design is COOOL.
Buying industrial buttons and modding old controllers isn’t really mainstream but damn it should be.
A NES controller with switches and joysticks normally used in a combine harvester is really satisfying.
Haha no that’s not what I meant. Industrial Design is a profession and automotive industrial designers design all sorts of things, from the shape of the body to the swoopiness of a headlight to the specific clacky feel of various buttons.
Meanwhile, Subaru phoned it in with their window switches...
I have to run out of the bathroom when my wife uses her Dyson hair dryer because it hurts my ears, and you're telling me this is by design?!
They also really really work well, theyre over engineered like crazy but last forever.
Newer ones don't. They're usually dead in 2-4 years.
Maybe the old Dysons. The new ones are rubbish. Shark all the way.
Not necessarily for sound, on industrial fans and drives, we can program in skip frequencies to avoid any resonance issues in the system. I've never done it for noise reduction. But I do some tweaks for efficiency and power consumption reduction. There's some wild industrial design stuff out there, and in the end, it's because it provides something the customer wants. I won't go into specifics, but you can design the same components the same for multiple manufacturers and do some slightly different things in its construction to give the vibe the OEM wants, or to fix some inherent characteristics in the manufacturers platform. It's REALLY cool when you think about it. Sorry to be so vague, but I have to be.
this is pretty cool but it'd be cooler if the started supporting right to repair. As far as i can care they're cunts until they stop producing manufactured e-waste products.