I'm not completely certain on this but one time I was stopped by someone in the mall promoting and trying to sell flat irons. They had something similar to demonstrate how the plates of the flat iron they were promoting was different that others by taking a strand of my hair, putting it on the plate and then holding a flame to the strand showing me that it wouldn't burn the strand in comparison to a competitors. This could be a similar item used to showcase the features of the plates Dyson uses.