Tag: ROOMBA

Crushed by the lines at Lady Gaga, we stumbled aimlessly around the convention center until we noticed a group of people crowding around a small, seemingly empty stage. Was it an invisible Pico projection? A telepathic social networking demonstration? No, it was the massive, fluorescent LG booth, and the object of attraction was a small, circular vacuum cleaner with tiny spinning brushes. We bent ...

What it is: The robot cleaning revolution apparently has arrived. Years after the first Roombas were introduced into homes around the world, Neato stepped up to the plate with its impressive XV-11. Now, just a few months later, Evolution Robotics has launched its own proprietary floor-cleaning robot, the Mint, and it has some solid sweeping skills of its own. Why it's different: In some ways, ...

What it is: Until now, iRobot's Roomba has been the only janitorial gadget worth employing. Enter Neato Robotics' XV-11, which, after several months' delay, has finally hit the market. The results are impressive; while perhaps not powerful or thorough enough to render your manual vacuum obsolete, it does represent a solid step forward for automated cleaning technology (otherwise known as Machines ...

The Roomba may be an efficient and discreet way to tidy up your filthy shoebox of an apartment, but don't you wish it had a little extra personality? Wouldn't you like to actually see your robotic housekeeper doing work, instead of just making dust and snack shrapnel mysteriously disappear? Well, now you can, with WowWee's Roboscooper. As Engadget reports, the wide-eyed robotic maid runs on ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2010/06/09/snls-top-10-greatest-fake-tech-commercials/'; Share Despite the dozens of iconic characters 'Saturday Night Live' has spawned over its 35 years, the most consistently funny and memorable moments have come from its hallmark spoof ads. After striking comedic gold in its very first season with a sketch about Mel's Char Palace, SNL's writers soon ...

Roombas hold a special place in their owners' hearts. They're kind of cute, make maintaining a clean house effortless, and are infinitely hackable. But a new study from Georgia Tech's College of Computing indicates that some people may be forging bonds with their gadgets that are normally reserved for pets. [Edit. Note: It appears the Amazon reviews of the little bot confirms this. We've read ...

When an Israeli family recently left their vacuuming robot to tidy up, they received more than just a clean house. According to Bot Junkie, Efi Frida found a deadly viper wrapped around the brushes of the Roomba 560 that she and her husband had purchased to help with household chores. The startling discovery happened when Frida returned home to find the robot angrily beeping and getting stuck. ...

Note to Roomba owners -- shut that bad boy off before leaving the house and arming the alarm system. In what we can only imagine was a pretty comical scene, a runaway Roomba in a Denmark home tripped the motion sensors after it acted on its itch to suck up a few pints of dust and debris while its owners were out on the town. Once the alarm was tripped, authorities were automatically phoned in to ...

It's 2008 and we've finally achieved the ultimate goal of modern robotics. No, not singularity... better: a cross-promotional marketing deal between the world's leading robots. Meet the Wall-E edition of iRobot's Roomba 530. The special edition Roomba is just like the original 530 only with the addition of that magnificent sticker for a extra ¥5,000 (about $50) premium. 400 units of the ...

Our dear friends at Engadget posted this video of a kitty taking a joy ride on a Roomba, the world's finest vacuuming robot. As we all know, cats and technology have long been embattled opponents, so we find a lot of hope in this instance of feline-robot cooperation. In the interest of perpetuating cuteness, we encourage you to introduce your kitty to a Roomba. Just keep him away from this ...

For Roomba hacking extraordinaire longjie0723, it's just another day in the office. Grasping for one more way to control the circular vacuum with something video game-related, he keyed in on the Wii Balance Board. Granted, he's already had success controlling the Roomba with a Wiimote, so we assume that whipping this one up was a lesson in simplicity. We still can't really understand why this ...

Not that it's any surprise, but according to a patent filing (which we were unable to ourselves unearth from the abyss that is the USPTO), iRobot would appear to still be working on the "Mowba," or whatever the hell the lawn-cutting robot is that they were talking up years ago. We're not sure you really need to pore over 80+ pages of sketches and drawings to get the idea though, especially since ...

We were beginning to wonder if the Roomba hacking community had been sucked dry of ideas, but leave it to longjie0723 to give us hope yet. This Roomba hacker (yeah, he also rigged his up for Wiimote control) managed to solder 448 yellow LEDs onto a board and program said devices to move in such a way that a Pac-Man-type image is seen. C'mon, who hasn't dreamed of having that ghost-inhaler work ...

Let a robot do your visiting for you. iRobot's ConnectR is a Web-cam wielding, Internet-enabled, Roomba-like robot that you can control from anywhere you have a Web connection. The 'bot sends video and audio to the remote user, who, in turn, can talk through the robot. ...