The air purifier market saw a huge uptick in the past years as homeowners became more aware and concerned about the quality of the air they breathe indoors. A single machine is enough to satisfy the needs of a room or a small apartment, but bigger domiciles would need more units to cover the wider space or numerous rooms. Of course, people won’t be in all those spaces or rooms at the same time, and managing multiple air purifiers could be a tiresome task, even if they’re all connected to your smartphone. What if the air purifier operated only where it’s needed, like in a place where the air quality is too low for comfort? That’s the idea behind this concept design for this elegant air purifier that can indeed go to those areas, using technologies already in use today.
Designer: Gwan-deok Seo
Air purifiers these days, at least the more sophisticated ones, can already detect air quality, but it’s more for automatically adjusting the level of purifying they do more than pinpointing where the poor air is. Robot vacuum cleaners, on the other hand, have become so advanced that they can effortlessly navigate around your home, mapping the floor layout on their own and avoiding all kinds of obstacles. There’s very little reason why these technologies can’t be combined, at least aside from the space they might take up on a single machine.
Puyager is a concept that does mix these two seemingly different worlds together in a harmonious manner and with a compact design. Of course, it can’t just be a low, disc-shaped machine like most robot vacuum cleaners on the market. It would be too cramped to include the necessary parts for sucking in, filtering, and blowing out air. At the same time, however, a box or cylindrical design similar to typical air purifiers would be too bulky, not to mention unappealing for something that will be moving around your house.
The shape chosen for this robot is an egg or at least the top half of one. This allows the bottom section to still be that round shape that makes robot vacuums efficient in moving around while leaving enough room for electronics and air circulation. Unlike a simple dome, however, Puyager has a gap between the left and right halves of this egg, providing an outlet for clean air to be released. The top edge of this gap houses the touch-sensitive controls that let owners minimally operate the machine without having to reach for their phone.
The end result is a product that looks stylish and elegant, a perfect fit for any home. Even while stationary, Puyager looks like a piece of decoration more than an appliance, adding a bit of visual value whether it’s busy purifying the air or just idling. Admittedly, its performance in actually detecting poor air quality and rolling over there to clean it is something that still needs to be tested, but the design is definitely a good starting point for a more modern and more human-centric solution to air quality at home.
