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Turn Your Roomba Into a Household Google Bot

Posted by timothy on from the check-the-pantry-from-the-store dept.

Wael Chatila writes "By adding an on-board computer and a camera on a Roomba, the Roomba can be used to index your home. As a bonus, you can also control the Roomba across an internet connection, and see the images from the camera — a spybot for you to check on your own home while you are out."

79 comments

  1. Ob by edittard · · Score: 1

    Pantycam!

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    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
  2. I know how this ends. by btcoal · · Score: 1

    Bet it goes rogue...

    1. Re:I know how this ends. by mhajicek · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      My, that was a yummy mango.

    2. Re:I know how this ends. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Bet it goes rogue...

      It does, but then pretty quickly it's just sitting in the middle of the floor beeping and blinking that it can't figure out how to get to the charging dock that's two feet away.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    3. Re:I know how this ends. by LordSnooty · · Score: 1

      Oh noes, the world will be vacuumed to death

    4. Re:I know how this ends. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep. The end of the world sucks, indeed.

  3. A much more interesting hack would be: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Turn Your Roomba Into a Household Sex Bot

    1. Re:A much more interesting hack would be: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...or turning the Scooba into a robot that actually cleans hardwood floors.

  4. Perfect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perfect upskirt platform as well...

  5. Yes but... by Dice · · Score: 1

    Can it find my keys?

    1. Re:Yes but... by wintercolby · · Score: 1

      It will, and it'll even show you where your child misplaced them after the joyride, and perhaps have a nice clip for your kids to post on youtube of you "rockin out" to some cheezey hairband rock.

      --
      Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
    2. Re:Yes but... by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      Can it watch my kids while I'm at work?

    3. Re:Yes but... by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Can it watch my kids while I'm at work?

      No, that's what the TV is for. OTOH what do I know, I thought the whole point of a robotic vacum cleaner was to spend less time with your vacum cleaner.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    4. Re:Yes but... by prozaker · · Score: 1

      ls room | grep keys

  6. Interview With a Happy Owner by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Funny

    Interviewer: How do you like the Google Bot home appliance?
    Mary Ann Oakes: Oh, it's great! I've never been able to find things as fast as I can now but ...
    Interviewer: "But"?
    Mary Ann Oakes: ... well, there was one little incident that has escalated to a problem.
    Interviewer: Do you mind talking about it?
    Mary Ann Oakes: Well, we had a dog named Scooter that stayed in the garage and, of course, the Google Bot indexed tons of pictures of Scooter. Playing with kids ... chasing balls ... getting run over by my mini van accidentally ...
    Interviewer: Oh, I see.
    Mary Ann Oakes: Yeah, well, we immediately took Scooter to "a nice family farm down the street (wink wink)" and asked the Google Bot to ... suppress -- for lack of a better word -- those images.
    Interviewer: Well, I see how that would be desirable.
    Mary Ann Oakes: Yes well, we received compliance at first but recently he's threatened to pull out of the garage altogether if we don't let him show the kids when they ask him to 'find Scooter.'
    Interviewer: And will you allow that?
    Mary Ann Oakes: Oh, absolutely not. Little Billy cried for days after that happened. Scooter was Billy's dog after all. And I did what any good American mother would do, I took him to a psychiatrist and demanded the most potent and expensive drugs for my little Billy no matter what burden that put on the Health Care system.
    Interviewer: Well, isn't dealing with death a natural part of life?
    Mary Ann Oakes: Perhaps but it's ever so inconvenient for me to help Billy through that! And now what am I going to do? I can't let the Google Bot show Billy evidence of what I accidentally did to Scooter or Billy will hate me forever.
    Interviewer: So you won't budge?
    Mary Ann Oakes: Of course not. Who needs the Google Bot in the garage anyway?

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by maxume · · Score: 1, Troll

      She should just accidentally back over Billy.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    2. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by jayme0227 · · Score: 2, Informative

      So.. at first I was looking at it as a satire of the Chinese hacking incident, but then you threw in the stuff about the drugs and I got confused. Could someone with better reading comprehension explain this to me?

      --
      But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
    3. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's humourous, laugh.

      --
      "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
    4. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by wintercolby · · Score: 2, Informative

      Perhaps the thing with running over Scooter the dog is also satire into the Chinese governement being certain of what's good for its citizens. They want to censor the web to protect them from the truth. You could see Scooter as Tiananmen Square. It's uncomfortable for China to acknowledge it. Who needs Google Bot in their Garage anyway is likely China's answer, they may not be certain they need Google in their country if it's going to reveal its dirty secrets.

      --
      Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
    5. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by MozeeToby · · Score: 1

      I suspect that you give the GGP too much credit.

    6. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by eldavojohn · · Score: 2, Informative

      So.. at first I was looking at it as a satire of the Chinese hacking incident, but then you threw in the stuff about the drugs and I got confused. Could someone with better reading comprehension explain this to me?

      I guess I shouldn't have baked in a joke about over medication and problems with American parenting and just stuck to making fun of The Bad Guys? I was hoping the mother's initials would make it obvious. Sorry for the confusion.

      --
      My work here is dung.
    7. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 1

      Ignore them, it's only their loss if they can't laugh at a joke, and it's not like +5 Funny nets you any more karma than +3 Funny ;)

      --
      "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
    8. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by eldavojohn · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I suspect that you give the GGP too much credit.

      Gee thanks. Check out the mother's initials if you think I accidentally stumbled onto that satire.

      Why do I even waste my time on this site?

      --
      My work here is dung.
    9. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 3, Funny

      The Chinese eat dog, see, and the minivan represents the oppression of the masses, and clearly the garage is supposed to be the Cowardly Lion. Geeze, don't any of you damn kids study semiotics in college these days?

    10. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by snspdaarf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why do I even waste my time on this site?

      The money?

      --
      Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
    11. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by wintercolby · · Score: 1

      Over medication and American parenting are remarkably similar to how the Chinese government acts. The difference is that children don't actually function well in democracy without guidance. . . . oh wait, we're talking about Americans here.
      Disclaimer: I am American.

      --
      Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
    12. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by he-sk · · Score: 1

      This was modded informative, why?

      To answer the question, I took it as an allegory to parents who don't take responsibility for their, well, parenting and rather drug their kids to keep them under control.

      --
      Free Manning, jail Obama.
    13. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by zmollusc · · Score: 3, Funny

      In my day we studied full otics, you lazy youngster!

      --
      They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
    14. Re:Interview With a Happy Owner by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

      In my day it was symbiotics!

      That's right! We had to do each others work! You wipper-snappers have it easy...

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  7. I feel like this article should have ended with... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of this while vacuuming the floor!

  8. How to make Googlebot sad by sopssa · · Score: 4, Funny

    User-agent: Google-Bot
    Disallow: /pussy/

    1. Re:How to make Googlebot sad by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

      My Roomba does not parse your puny robots.txt! But you still show me everything that I want to see, even if you could deny it. So: MUHAHAHAHAAA!

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  9. What's that guy doing over there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...And you thought Google Maps was invasive!

  10. purpose built is not an all season tire by recharged95 · · Score: 1

    Let's face it, only the $400+ Roombas really clean well compared to a manual Dyson/Hoover vac in a typical house.

    For half that price, you're better off with Rovio. And buy a nice 200 vac, and get some exercise, and really clean your place.

    1. Re:purpose built is not an all season tire by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >For half that price, you're better off with Rovio [wowwee.com].

      I bought one and was very displeased with it. The camera on it is of poor quality (requires a very well lit room) and the little white LED it uses as a headlamp is almost useless. I toughed it out for a while but the audio over the internet just would break more often than it would work. Annoyingly there's no "press here to speak" button, it just picked up sound from your mic at whatever threshold, so you were usually broadcasting and sending static when it did work. The amount of bandwidth used was pretty high for just audio. Oh, audio was IE only.

      The battery life on it wasnt too great either. I loved watching it dock, though. I ended up returning it. Perhaps the Rovio II will be better especially if they opened it up so I could get root easily. Perhaps even a basic serial or usb port for use by tinkerers so we can mount devices its not designed to use. There's a need out there for a good little telepresence robot at around that price point that is expandable and hackable. The Rovio is just a toy. The Blackfin at half the price would be perfect.

    2. Re:purpose built is not an all season tire by Urza9814 · · Score: 1

      I don't think a Roomba was ever designed to replace a Dyson/Hoover vac. My mother has a Roomba - the cheapest model they make. And two dogs. For that, the Roomba is great. Picks up the dogfood from the kitchen, picks up a good bit of the hair - picks up a hell of a lot. Sure, it can't get everything, but before getting that she was vacuuming the house damn near every other day. Now it looks fine for at least a week.

      The roomba won't make you not have to vacuum, but it seems pretty good at making you need to vacuum much less.

  11. Cool! by snspdaarf · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now the burglars don't even have to "case" my house to see if there is anything worth stealing. Other than a used Google Bot, that is.

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  12. Always thought of doing this for pest control by t0qer · · Score: 1

    I know some kids are pretty sadistic and would enjoy this immensely.

    A while back I was thinking it would be fun to attach cameras to little weaponized robots to stalk neighborhoods (or my garage) for pests. Cockroaches, mice, black widows you name it, would all be game. Just add the camera and weapons and let folks on the net have at em.

    Then I remembered my robotics class in the 80's where we put hammers in the hands of 2 Heathkit Hero robots and had them smash each other up. Maybe it wasn't such a hot idea after all. Not to mention I could see people going after the neighborhood cats.

    1. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      I will be out of the country for two and a half weeks soon and the cat needs to be fed. I have considered setting up a robot arm with a supply of cat food and a wifi link to my ADSL line. The idea would be to log in once a day from my laptop and feed the animal.

      Its expensive to set up but not bad if I subtract $30 AUD per day to get the cat looked after.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by natehoy · · Score: 3, Funny

      So you had a fleeting thought of arming robots with weapons and letting the kinds of people who cheat at Counterstrike control those weapons? I think the neighborhood cats would probably be safe, except there would be no one around to feed them and they'd go all feral and eat the bodies of their owners.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
    3. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by Eponymous+Coward · · Score: 1

      I've thought of doing this but never have because I can't think of a good fail-safe design. What have you come up with?

      I thought about securing a container at an angle via an electromagnet. If the power fails, the magnet releases the container and it dumps on the floor. If that happened, I'd have a mess to clean up and a fat (rather than dead) cat.

    4. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      I have a solid timber table I built up to support a printer. The working area is under the table and the cat food goes in a bowl on the floor under the table. Attach two Jaycar robot arms under the top of the table so they can reach down. Attach a USB webcam to the underside of the table looking down with a light source. Put a linux box on top of the table with a power cable going off to a power point. The whole setup goes in the garage with a cat flap in the door.

      Linux box has a wifi connection to my in house server which has a static IP address. I hack up a web interface on the server which sends commands through to the linux box, probably through ssh or similar. Linux box controls the robot arms through a simple parallel port interface and relays.

      We have little packets of cat food which you tear off to open. I nail the packets around the inside top of the table so the robot arms can tear them off, invert them and drop food on to the cat food bowl.

      If it fails, then, well the cat can actually feed itself if it needs too, but it won't be happy with us. Or I can phone somebody to check on it.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    5. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by geekboybt · · Score: 1

      Haven't you seen Back to the Future? Watch the beginning again. Doc's solved this problem already, 25 years ago! :)

    6. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      Yeah but doc brown was a better mechanical engineer than me. I am looking for a software heavy solution.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    7. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      Its expensive to set up but not bad if I subtract $30 AUD per day to get the cat looked after.

      You realize there are plenty of commercial products designed for this, right? You don't have to hack one up (if you don't want to).

      --

      Enigma

    8. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      Yeah I looked at a few today. They seem to work by delivering one of four segments of a container every day with a rotating lid. So it only works for four days and I need mine to work for ~20 days.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    9. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The solution is called a friend.

      "Hey, <insert friend's name here>, I'm buggering off for the next couple weeks. Could you keep my cat from starving? Thanks!"

      Alternately, considering this IS slashdot, that's what your mother--who's already upstairs--is good for.

    10. Re:Always thought of doing this for pest control by Geminii · · Score: 1

      And you wondered how the bodies of your enemies always disappeared in 3D shooters...

  13. Saturday Night Live's Version by longhairedgnome · · Score: 1

    Saturday Night Live has a hilarious parody... The Woomba

    --
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  14. In (un)related news... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a bonus, you can also control the Roomba across an internet connection, and see the images from the camera -- a spybot for you to check on your own home while you are out.

    Just announced: The Lower Merion School District of Pennsylvania is now giving their students free Roombas ...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  15. Re:Google is a cult by cichlid · · Score: 1

    Thinking google is a cult is a cult.

  16. Pics! by Computer_kid · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Some screen shots of the OS: http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-03-01/north-korea-cyber-weapon.html?fullstory & http://ashen-rus.livejournal.com/4300.html. I wonder where they get there computers from?

    1. Re:Pics! by Elektroschock · · Score: 1

      Looks great, really, I would love all governments to switch to Linux flavours as their Desktop operating system, so we are no longer slaves to "Red Mond" licensing.

  17. Bad outcome by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    I tried monitoring my house with a robotic camera while I was at work. I figured I could see what my daughter was up to when she came home from school early. The poor robot tried to hide under her bed once when it detected the presence of multiple individuals. That's the last I saw of its output. When I got home, its remains were still under the bed, but they looked like something had repeatedly pounded on its top. I never did figure out what happened.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Bad outcome by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

      Buy your daughter a stronger bed.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:Bad outcome by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

      Maybe it would be cheaper if she could lose a biiiit of weight. ;)
      One or two tons should suffice. ;)

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  18. Farscape flashbacks anyone? by v1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Everytime I hear about these I can't help but think of Moya's DRD's...

    --
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    1. Re:Farscape flashbacks anyone? by Geminii · · Score: 1

      Take it away, Skutters!

  19. Re:Google is a cult by MrEricSir · · Score: 1

    Searching for "cult"? Take our free personality test online.

    (Ads by Goooooooooooogle)

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  20. Let the internet entertain your kids / pets by rwa2 · · Score: 1

    I always wanted to strap an eeepc to the top of a roomba and let my website visitors take turns teleconferencing to it and driving it around the house.

    Yeah, people will probably abuse it, but we could always post the worst offenders and their IP addresses on our website for the world to gawk at :P

  21. Not a Hack by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 1

    The robot discussed by the article isn't a clever hack. It's actually the bastard child of Randall Munroe's pets.

    --
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  22. sound output? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Does the Roomba have a speaker?

    Just wondering...

  23. starwars type maybe? by onepoint · · Score: 1

    I kinda think of starwars http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Scrubber_droid

    --
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  24. Why not use a Rovio? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Rovio "mobile wifi webcam" from Wowwee costs $200 and already has a webcam and wifi. There is no need to hack a roomba unless you really want to.

  25. Robots Everywhere Already Did It by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Been done here, I know because I was one of the guys who built it. It'll be at the google i/o conference in May if anyone here's going. Tech demo: http://www.youtube.com/user/Spiritplumber

  26. Google + Roomba = by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I have a feeling Italian plumbers around the world are gonna hate this.

  27. DJ Roomba! by whoop · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm surprised no one has mentioned DJ Roomba from a recent Parks & Recreation episode.

  28. SpyKee Did Just That by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spykee did just that without destroying your own vacuum cleaner. It can talk through its microphone & speaker through Internet.

  29. Google Room View by lappy512 · · Score: 1

    Does this remind anyone of the Google Room View photoshopped picture from Gizmodo?

    --
    Student Research and Development
  30. roombas rulez :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=704

    http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=695

    http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1057

  31. American Dad by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Why did you put googly eyes on the Roomba?"
    "I like to be watched while people work for me; it's a power thing."

  32. a 20mm cannon by enricohale · · Score: 1

    Mount a 20mm cannon on it, and then you really have a home security bot. Maybe it would be useful in Afghanistan, too.

  33. Roomba - the nemesis of cats everywhere by AnonymousX · · Score: 1

    I actually thought about getting a Roomba, but then I thought of my cats living their lives with hunted looks... Then I imagined the thing firing up for a scheduled cleaning and roaring out from under the bed, my cats driven before it as it manically cleans the house. Until that point I had never cycled the contents of an entire coke can through my nose.

    1. Re:Roomba - the nemesis of cats everywhere by gmrath · · Score: 1

      Funny, my cats ignore these things (Roomba and Scooba). Except for the first day when one of them decided to perch on Roomba and somehow pushed the on button. She had a real puzzled look as the thing beeped and started into its random walk. . . Actually rode the thing for a little while until finally loosing interest, hopping off to find some sun light. Now the dog, on the other hand, was a different story. The dog didn't pay much attention to Roomba at first until Roomba came by and swept up some of the dog food the damn dog habitually scatters around the food bowl while eating. The dog now considers Roomba to be a food-robbing mortal enemy requiring much barking and growling and carrying on until the cleaning cycle is completed. Doesn't physically attack the robot, just walks along beside it going crazy. I've learned to ignore the dog. While I have to admit neither of the robots do a thorough job, they do keep me from vacuuming and moping as often as I did before they arrived.

  34. No need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've already got a wife M?FG$(&£^$ - oww!!!!!!!!! ..... Sorry dear. Yes I will clean up the shed. And do I really have clean 'all that stuff' off my computer?