iRobot Moves Into Your House

MacAndrew writes "An NYT article today expands beyond an earlier /. and annoying futurism to a multiplying line of robots from iRobot, founded by some tinkering MIT grads in Somerville, MA. The robots have found applications ranging from chasing dust bunnies ($200) to exploring the Great Pyramid to bumping around Afghan caves for mines (a war reporter is another possibility), and so appear to be moving beyond the gee whiz Rosie Jetson stage of technology. I'm intrigued that their company name so bluntly builds off of Apple and Asimov symbols, and the prospect that a product with such a chummy name will doubtless soon be sporting lethal force (cf. Predator's recent adventures. So -- anyone get one for Xmas? Chanukah? Or just fun?"

Comments

Thank goodness

[ArmenTanzarian]

This is welcome news, I'm very lazy and I've always wanted something else to do my cleaning, pyramid exploring and killing for me.

We get it..

[joshua404]

Robots, anime, Microsoft. Robots, anime, Microsoft.

I think we understand.

Roomba!

[janda]

I got a Roomba for my boyfriend and my Mother for Christmas. They think it's the neatest thing since sliced bread.

The only problems we've found so far are that if you have small (e.g. 6"ish) gaps in your wall, say a bookcase, gap, CD tower, gap, bookcase, the Roomba may get confused and not realize there's a wall there. That's what the virtual wall is for. The other issue is animals. They don't know what to think of it.