Geek Toy – Roomba
I’m not much for toys – but sometimes something catches my eye as being a handy thing to have. The Roomba robot, created by iRobot is one such device. Put it down, press a button and this little robot traverses your home vacuming on it’s own. It can go under furniture and has automatic room discovery software that allows it to get a picture of the area to be cleaned and figure out the most efficient way to do so.
It even has the ability to detect areas that are extra dirty and gives them a little extra attention. This is great, for someone like myself – I have a tendency to operate in my own little world and that sometimes leads to unintentional neglect of such tasks such as floor cleaning. Advanced models allow for scheduling of the little cleaning beasty and the Roomba can even park itself in it’s charger by itself.
Imagine you can go about your daily life and this small droid takes care of your floors for you. Replace frequent cleaning tasks such as vacuming and sweeping with merely picking up the Roomba and emptying it’s dirt chamber occasionally.
Of course, at $300 and up (although a refurbished model goes for $200) such convenience is not cheap.
Themocracy
They even make models that will mop your floor. Personally I would like one of each. The vacuum I now own cost me about the same as the roomba robot, and probably has better sucking power, but only if I am not too lazy to turn it on and push it around the room…sigh!
Maybe Santa will bring me a robotic vacuum….but I won’t hold my breath. I am however, holding out for a lump of coal. I could ask my hubby to give me a roomba. A vacuum or mop is something he would consider a good gift for his wife, but no doubt he’d give me a manual machine. Last year I asked for new clothes and he gave me rags…literally, so I could dust the furniture. ;-p