As first demoed at Gadgetoff 2007, the new iRobot Looj took both my daughter and myself by surprise. First, when Helen Greiner asked us if we had any gutters at our home, we responded with a “yes.” It was after a 5 minute demo of this new gutter-cleaning robot, that we both realized Helen meant gutters on our house and not gutters in the street.
It still remains to be seen how this $99.99 to $169.99 robot is any better than just using a standard garden hose for cleaning the gutters on a house. In fact, the flopping, flailing auger action looks like it would flip the hapless robot out of most built-in style gutters. If you purchase and try the Looj, please post your results in our comments section.
(Image: iRobot)
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Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?