<p>You can’t be home all day to clean up around your house, and even if you are, why bother when you can outsource the task to a robot? <strong>iRobot </strong>launched the original <strong>Roomba </strong>in 2002, its first domestic product after years of creating military gadgets. Sixteen years later, the Roomba still exists, and soon it will serve as a literal vehicle for Google to learn more about what the inside of your house looks like. Thanks to a new partnership <strong>iRobot’s </strong>machines can now collect data about the inside of your house by creating a map as they clean up your spilled Cheerios and your cat’s fur, and send that data to Google to make your smart home “more thoughtful.”</p>
<p>Both companies, it seems, are counting on the concept’s appeal to outweigh its potential creepiness. Using a combination of low-resolution camera imagery and odometry data—how fast <strong>Roomba’s </strong>wheels move—Google and iRobot say they can create cleaning schedules customized to your home, or can let it vacuum one specific room at a time. Per the Verge, the Roomba’s new mapping capabilities would allow you to tell your Google Assistant, should you have one, things like “O.K. <strong>Google</strong>, tell Roomba to clean the kitchen.” The maps, both companies say, are useful beyond vacuuming purposes; for example, the data could be used to locate WiFi-connected lighting, too. “This idea is that when you say, <strong>‘O.K. Google, turn the lights on in the kitchen,’</strong> you need to know what lights are in the kitchen. And if I say, ‘O.K. future iRobot robot with an arm, go get me a beer,’ it needs to know where the kitchen and the refrigerator are,” <strong>iRobot C.E.O. Colin Angle</strong> explained.</p>
<p>Of course, users would be forgiven for not enthusiastically signing to have two companies virtually case their home in tandem. Although <strong>Google </strong>has come under less scrutiny for privacy-related foibles than competitors like Facebook, it has still had its share of mishaps—such as the exposure of half a billion Google+ users’ personal data, which it reportedly preferred to keep under wraps. It was perhaps the increased scrutiny around tech products and user privacy that lead <strong>Google’s Michelle Turner,</strong> the director of the company’s smart-home ecosystem, to downplay any potential privacy concerns. “This data doesn’t help current Google products,” she said, referring to Google’s ad-targeting business. “This data is not getting fed into some larger morass of Google information.” Angle similarly told the Verge that the data-sharing features are voluntary. “If we can help the Google ecosystem to have a better understanding of the home—with full permission of the users, and the full ability to back out—then it might be that owning a Roomba makes your smart home smarter,” he said. “Or even more thoughtful.”</p>
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