iRobot Develops Hamster-Guided Robotic Vacuum

carusoj writes "The folks at iRobot apparently have plenty of time on their hands. They created a prototype wireless, robotic vacuum cleaner... powered by a hamster running inside a spinning ball. The rodent's movements with the ball are fed to and analyzed by a complex set of sensors, which then guide the actual vacuum device to mimic the animal's speed and direction. You can see where this is going: it's a clever ploy to then get you to buy a second robot that would automatically feed, water, and clean up after the hamster in the first robot."

Comments

Saw it Monday night

[elrous0]

They showed this on Attack of the Show on Monday night. In truth, it looks more like hamster torture than anything fun (for either operator or hamster). The poor hamster is locked in a colored (surprisingly opaque) ball on top of what looks like a standard Roomba. The hamster looked less amused than terrified.