Duke is careering noisily across a living room floor resplendent in the dark blue and white colours of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He's no student but a disc-shaped robotic vacuum cleaner called the Roomba. Not only have his owners dressed him up, they have also given him a name and gender.
Duke is not alone. Such behaviour is common, and takes myriad forms according to a survey of almost 400 Roomba owners, conducted late last year by Ja-Young Sung and Rebecca Grinter, who research human-computer interaction at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
"Dressing up Roomba happens in many ways," Sung says. People also often gave their robots a name and gender, according to the survey (see Diagram) which Sung presented at the Human-Robot Interaction conference earlier this month in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.The iRobot site has a special 'owners' page for stories and anecdotes. These are my two favourites:
Rescue Roomba
My daughter bought us this as a Xmas gift last year and my husband and I both agree that it is the best gift we have ever had. Four months ago I had a hip replacement with all the restrictions that involves and my husband, at 82 years old, did all the housework. He cannot praise Roomba enough to all our friends and says if the house catches on fire, I will have to fend for myself as he will only rescue Roomba!! Thank you so much for isuch a wonderful invention. You are a blessing to the older generation.
— Alma D.
Mating Ritual
I have just bought a Roomba, I know everyone says how well it cleans the floor, and they are not wrong, I was very surprised at just how clean everywhere is after Roomba has done it's thing. I've had my new pet for about a week now and some of it's behaviors are hilarious, first of all, I opened all the doors to all my rooms just to see how Roomba would cope (very well I must say !) I had not quite opened the bathroom door properly so when roomba went in, and tried to get out, it bumped into the door and locked itself in, I know we all like our privacy in the smallest room, seem Roomba feels the same ! The next thing just had me laughing out loud, I also bought a docking station which I placed in the corner of the room, the carpet is a little uneven there so Roomba was having a tiny bit of difficulty in docking first time, but it did not give up, it backed off and tried again a few more times, and then docked successfully, I could not help think it was taking part in a mating ritual with the docking station, Roomba would climb onto it's partner as if trying to mount it, and just like real life, didn't get it right first time, but persistance paid off in the end. Also when Roomba undocks and reverses off it's docking station, those little reversing bleeps are a very nice touch, A robot that cleans the floor is great enough in itself, but this robot cleans the floor and has a sense of humour built in, what more could you want?
— Paul
Indeed Paul. Indeed.
I am a huge fan of the Roomba and have heard so my funny stories from Roomba owners. Just like the chart shows, many people name there Roomba as I have done myself. I like to call him Fred, but I must admit that I have never dressed him up. Too Funny!
Posted by: Ron the Roomba 560 Fan | March 05, 2011 at 11:02 PM