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talking vacuum cleaners
LONDON (Reuters) - Inventor James Dyson will launch a vacuum cleaner next year with a motor that can spin five times faster than a formula one car engine and a computer that can tell a call centre what has happened if it breaks down.
The machine is the latest piece of pioneering vacuum cleaner technology from Dyson, who made his name by developing the bagless cleaner.
The motor, which has the power-to-weight ratio of a Ferrari, is three times faster than a normal vacuum cleaner and has a third more suction, Dyson says.
If anything goes wrong, the cleaner will take the annoyance out of ringing the call centre, Dyson told BBC radio.
A microprocessor which runs the motor stores the product's key details such as model number and date of manufacture, and records how the product has been used.
So if there is a problem or you need a new part, "you ring up the helpline, simply put the receiver against the vacuum cleaner, and press the button", said Dyson.
In about 10 seconds the cleaner will download its personal information to another computer at the call centre, allowing a technician to see the problem.
The process is not entirely automated, said Dyson.
"There will be human interaction at the end of this. Having got all the information, we can have a much more pleasant and better informed conversation," said Dyson.
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what next!!
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