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Roomba Vacuum Robot Opens to Hackers
FleaPlus writes "iRobot has quietly released the specifications (pdf) for the Roomba Serial Control Interface. Using a serial port one can now tinker with the Roomba by controlling behaviors, programming new songs, and remotely monitoring sensors. Hopefully this will allow for some clever hacks."
Woomba
I think it's safe to say that it's just a matter of time before we read a /. story of how some geek terrorized his wife/girlfriend/neighbor with one of these...
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Add a hose, and you've got every single male geek's (slashdotter?) dream..
Sexual gratification that comes to you!
By the time Roomba became self-aware it had spread into millions of computer servers across the planet. Ordinary computers in office buildings, dorm rooms; everywhere. It was software; in cyberspace. There was no system core; it could not be shutdown. The attack began at 6:18 PM, just as he said it would. Judgment Day, the day the human race was almost destroyed by the vacuums they'd built to clean their homes. --John Connor.
I'm a big tall mofo.
How long before these robots turn evil and try to push us down the stairs?
thus the roomba and not skynet became self-aware on August 8th, 1997...
Meanwhile our carpets have never been cleaner and our pets never more terrified...
Can't wait to read about the first dead burglar.
switching it from suck, to blow.
Spaceballs rules btw.
Mr. President, what does this mean for the war on drugs? Do you have an eye on these intelligent, morally-deficient vacuum cleaners?
The president said Friday he could not talk about the matter.
"We do not discuss ongoing intelligence operations to protect the country, and the reason why is that there's an enemy that lurks, that would like to know exactly what we're trying to do to stop them," Bush said in a television interview.
Plus it terrifies my cats.
Heh. Better than them apparently wanting to mate with it. Sigh.
You WANT hacked robots running around your house?! Elementary chaos theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok in an orgy of blood and the kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
How about several Roombas playing musical accompaniment to Drunk animatronic Walmart Santa?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
How long before some doofus tries to reenact Great Moments in Cinema?
"Chairs are a problem. I have several chairs just the right size for Roomba to get wedged into the space between the legs. You wouldn't beleive how persistent Roomba is about wedging itself in tight."
I have a solution for that. Invite Steve Ballmer over and piss him off! [grin]
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Damn you, man, you pay to fill the bong?! Grow your own, share, and use the saved money to get a bong caddy!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
A friend just gave me her old Roomba to hack, so this is great timing! I'm going to use it to realize an idea (dunno if it's original or not) wherein the hacked Roomba lets me turn any room into a gigantic pinball machine. It'll have more bump sensors, a frantic motion algo, a crap-load of blinky lights and sound-effects, plus a digital display (in big red numbers) that keeps score. You set it down, aim it into the room, and let it go. A timer stops it after X minutes. High score wins (or whatever). I'm gunna call it "Roomball" . . . or maybe "Pinba". My cat will never forgive me.
I for one welcome our new....
At work the other day, the bad-joke-of-the-day was similar.
In lots of hotels, motel, inn, etc there are signs that indicate someone famous slept there. "Elvis slept here." "King Charles II slept here."
In a small inn in Germany there is a similar sign. "Heisenberg may have slept here."
It served as a very good geek test. People either immediately laughed, or just looked blankly waiting for the punchline.