Emotional Attachment To Roombas Suggests Humans Can Love Their 'Bots

By Clay Dillow Posted 03.02.2010 at 5:00 pm 8 Comments

The Roomba These cute little guys are warming their owners' hearts, paving the way for wider acceptance of autonomous robots living alongside humans. Larry D. Moore

How much do you love your vacuum cleaner? If yours happens to be a cute little Roomba, a new study suggests that you might like it a little bit too much . A Georgia Tech researcher has found that many Roomba owners name, dress up and genuinely worry about their Roombas, as if they were living pets.

For instance, of 30 committed users studied as part of the research effort, two-thirds had named their devices and half had assigned them an arbitrary gender. Others in the study were found to rearrange their homes to be more accommodating to the robots, while others pre-clean their homes before putting the machine to work and buy new rugs that don't tie up the Roomba on its programmed march around the house. One subject even introduced his Roomba to his parents.

But the most interesting finding is that Roombas don’t always work perfectly – and that may only contribute to owners’ affections for them. The cute, fallible little devices are emotionally engaging enough for some users that their reliability as robots is less important than their presence and companionship. We’re not making this up.

The study also suggests that people are warming up to having a robot perpetually in the house, even one that doesn’t necessarily do its job right all the time. Is it the beginning of the acceptance of robots into the family dynamic? We’re not sure about all that just yet, but it would seem that in the case of the tiny Roomba, man and machine are forging some kind of bond at an emotional level. Whether that’s exciting or unsettling is still up in the air.

[MSNBC via Gizmodo]

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8 Comments

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LittleOne20

03/02/10 at 5:25 pm

As far as making accommodations for the Roomba via new rugs they won't get caught on and so forth, that just seems like common sense.

Is this the same emotional connection, so to speak, that a man has with his muscle car or boat?

I think it's good for adults to have a little bit of an imagination to personify their little robots. Show's we're not completely jaded by the hardships of life.

Haven't we all begged an obstinate computer at one point to please work if we promise we'll be nice?

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johnt007871

03/02/10 at 5:42 pm

I'll start being concerned with they snuggle and watch tv

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javor jav

03/02/10 at 7:33 pm

Well, I think my dad had a pet rock at some time. I'd say this is a step up.

Its like that Lady Gaga song, " la ah ah ahhhha, rooma rommmaamaaaa, bad romance". I think i'll call my Gaga when I get one

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javor jav

03/02/10 at 7:35 pm

HAHAHA, that video was sooooooo funny.

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Whys333

03/02/10 at 8:10 pm

American Dad
------------

"Did you put eyes on the Roomba?"
"Yeah, I like to look someone in the eyes when they clean for me. It's a power trip."

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Brian P.

03/04/10 at 4:34 pm

I'm waiting for the day when they can combine a roomba with a bot that cooks, does dishes, and laundry, and looks like a real doll. Then I might have some sentimental attachment. I'm sure it would make my wife jealous though. LOL!

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DasRaskalKing

03/10/10 at 10:40 am

I think this is pretty awesome - it shows people aren't afraid of robots - yet. Perhaps when the roomba can speak and think on its own, people will begin to fear robots.

Acceptance of robots in our society can be a great or terrible thing. Time will tell.

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