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Study shows owners get sucked in by robotic vacuum
So what gender is your Roomba????
They give them nicknames, worry when they signal for help and sometimes even treat them like a trusted pet.
A new study shows how deeply some Roomba owners become attached to the robotic vacuums, and suggests there's a measure of public readiness to accept robots in the house — even flawed ones.
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The first phase of the project, which involved monitoring an online forum devoted to the site, revealed people who named their Roombas, traveled with them and one owner who introduced the machine to his parents.
Others reported their efforts to "Roomba-ize" their homes so the robot could roam the floors more easily. Some bought new rugs, pre-cleaned the floors to clear the robot's route and purchased new refrigerators with a higher clearance so the machines could clean under them easier.
"I was blown away," Young Sung said. "Some Roombas break a lot, they still have functional problems. But people are willing to make that effort because they love their robot enough."
The next part, which studied 30 committed Roomba users, revealed 21 of them gave their robots names. And 16 others talked about the robot as a "he," arbitrarily assigning the robot a gender.
A new study shows how deeply some Roomba owners become attached to the robotic vacuums, and suggests there's a measure of public readiness to accept robots in the house — even flawed ones.
…
The first phase of the project, which involved monitoring an online forum devoted to the site, revealed people who named their Roombas, traveled with them and one owner who introduced the machine to his parents.
Others reported their efforts to "Roomba-ize" their homes so the robot could roam the floors more easily. Some bought new rugs, pre-cleaned the floors to clear the robot's route and purchased new refrigerators with a higher clearance so the machines could clean under them easier.
"I was blown away," Young Sung said. "Some Roombas break a lot, they still have functional problems. But people are willing to make that effort because they love their robot enough."
The next part, which studied 30 committed Roomba users, revealed 21 of them gave their robots names. And 16 others talked about the robot as a "he," arbitrarily assigning the robot a gender.
I don't love her as much as I love my real pets but we're pretty crazy about her. It's great having a clean house that I didn't have to vacuum. 
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