By Kathryn Bold, Physorg
Most people have just one question regarding Roombas: How well do the robotic floor vacuums suck up pet hair and dust bunnies? A few might even wonder if their Roomba could go rogue and chase the family cat or attack them in their sleep. Rebecca Grinter, a graduate of UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences, has a more academic interest in the smart, saucer-shaped devices. “Roombas are one of the first robots to leave science fiction and enter the home, so they’re an ideal subject for my research. It has nothing to do with their ability to vacuum,” says Grinter, associate professor of interactive computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “I’m looking at ways people become personally engaged with technology so we can design robots and other machines — particularly computers — to better fit into the social experience.”
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-closer-humans-interact-technology.html
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