Dyson's CameraJet is a $500 three-in-one toothbrush that scans your maw

Dyson Whenever Dyson enters a new product category, it causes quite a stir. From hairdryers and styling tools to headphones and wearable air purifiers , the company has certainly applied its expertise in moving air to surprising places. With the announcement of the Dyson CameraJet today, the vacuum maker is taking its cleaning prowess to your mouth.

That name certainly doesn't make things clearer, because when you think of a camera and a jet you probably don't say: "Aha! Toothbrush." But that's precisely what the CameraJet is. It's a super-engineered toothbrush that has a camera, water tank and motors onboard to help it combine brushing, flossing and rinsing into one device.

The company's founder James Dyson said in a statement, "By combining a camera, machine learning, precision fluid dynamics, advanced brushing technologies, connectivity and Wi-Fi, Dyson CameraJet introduces an entirely new way to keep your mouth healthy."

Though it seems unusual at first, after some time at a demo, I realized it's quite natural for Dyson to take on this category. After all, what is an electric, motorized toothbrush but a set of moving bristles aimed at getting dirt and debris out of tight crevices? Dyson is certainly no stranger to that sort of machinery .

If you're wondering why a camera is necessary, though, the answer is, partially, AI.

Dyson The Dyson CameraJet has what the company calls a "100k pixel macro lens camera" mounted right under the head of the brush. That's 0.1 megapixels in more typical camera terminology, which may seem like a very small number, but it's certainly supplemented by some algorithmic effort. More specifically, 16 million lines of code and "a machine learning system trained on 470,000 dental images collected during development" are behind the computer vision targeting here.

Basically, all that computing has taught the CameraJet how to identify the gaps between your teeth. When you brush and the system sees a gap, it will shoot a jet of fluid in a conical shape that helps to floss while you brush. To prevent liquid from accumulating in your mouth as you move along, these bursts of mouthrinse are fired in tiny amounts. The capacity of the water tank that surrounds the neck of the brush is just 12.5ml (0.42 fluid ounces), which is just about two and a half teaspoons.

According to Dyson, the CameraJet's "Gap Optical Targeting" system analyzes "28 live images per second to identify and target gaps between teeth in real time" and "within 100ms of the camera seeing a gap, the device detects and jets the gap."

That camera isn't just there to tell the toothbrush where to shoot fluid. You can use the companion MyDyson app to get a better view of your mouth, especially the back of your teeth. The live-viewing feature is only available during live viewing or auto-jetting, and Dyson says no images are recorded or stored on the product or in the cloud. You can also use the app to get tips, guides and personalized feedback on how to brush better, with details on where you're already good and what areas you might be falling back on.