Had this been proclaimed exactly one week ago, it would have neatly fit into some corporate April Foolery. Dyson, on the hand, tells us augmented reality vacuuming is a real thing and comes in June-a bit late in the season for spring cleaning, alas.

When it debuts this summer, CleanTrace will be compatible with the Dyson Gen5detect system. The press images don't quite do the tech justice, either, as it'll focus on phones and not, say, an Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest headset. While that sort of heads-up AR might seem easy to imagine, one ultimately has to wonder just how many people are going to want to vacuum with a computer on their head.

The system's a little silly and wildly unnecessary, but that's sort of the fun of it, no? It's not going to tip over anyone who's on the fence about a $700 ultra-premium vacuum, but this is hardly the most ridiculous thing Dyson has shown the world.

The company says the feature was inspired by its own robot vacuum mapping. "We realized that we could all learn a thing or two from the methodical cleaning approach of our robot vacuums," says Dyson 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.".

In the demos, the system makes an overlay of purple-K colour, which is that of Dyson; it marks the path the vacuum has taken up to that point. The concept is to fill the whole room with that color so that you would know you have touched every single place rather than trusting your old eyeballs, which are technologically out of date.

As someone who vacuumed almost every morning, I give in to what Dyson says: "Our research shows that consumers regularly overestimate the amount of time they clean – data shows that around 80% of cleaning sessions last less than 10 minutes, yet people claim they vacuum for an average of 24 minutes per session."

So it all comes down to that most of us don't like to vacuum simply because we don't like housework period. Consequently, we end up grossly overestimating how much time we spend doing it each day. And heck, if CleanTrace can shave off just a little bit of time and make the chore a little more manageable, well fine and dandy. If in the end it ends up playing out with users, how long till vacuum gamification?