Asus Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Features

Step aside LG RoboKing, Neato Robotic vacuum and the Electrolux silent vacuum, there’s a new player in town. It’s quite a change for the computer maker that is better known for their Eee netbooks and their new educational robot, but Asus wants a piece of the home cleaning market and is releasing their own robotic vacuum.
The Asus vacuum which is shaped like Roomba is called ECleaner. This robotic vacuum includes a couple of neat features such as a 6000-hour UV light to disinfect floors and a built in fragrance dispenser. There’s even a remote control for this battery powered unit.
Although there are not a lot of details, it appears that ECleaner has a couple of preset cleaning patterns as well as a photo sensor so that it avoids falling down stairs. There really isn’t any new innovation in this vacuum cleaner design, but what’s nice about it is that it is competitively priced at $150

Read more about Asus Robotic Vacuum Cleaner by Coolest Gadget Reviews

Intelligent Robot Vacuum Cleaner Video

A robot vacuum cleaner with an IP Camera. That’s right! Apart from cleaning your home with its intelligent design, you can now go online from anywhere in the world and drive the robot vacuum cleaner just like an RC toy around the house to clean, see who’s there, and even interact with your family with this amazing Intelligent Robot Vacuum Cleaner with Wireless IP Camera.

Control Roomba Vacuum Cleaner Using Wii Fit

Here’s a hack gadgetheads will love. What happens when Roomba meets the Wii Balance Board? Say hello to the “Surfin ba”

Japanese Roomba enthusiast Ron Tajima attached a serial Bluetooth adapter to the Roomba. He then used the Wii Balance Board’s Bluetooth capability to steer the Roomba around. The extent to which he leans on the Balance Board controls the radius of the Roomba’s turn and its direction.

Check out the YouTube video with its kitschy music and sped up assembly footage making it all seem so easy! Even easier than just letting the Roomba do its own thing.

Researchers Tweak Roomba to Respond to Emotions

Researchers at the University of Calgary tricked out an iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner to react to signals such as muscle tension and eye movement in a bid to test limited brain-computer interaction between humans and robots.

“As far as we know we are amongst the very first to pursue bioelectric signal interfaces in human-robot interaction, where we program a robot to react to the user’s emotional state rather than just direct control,” says Paul Saulnier, a graduate student at the University. Saulnier presented his findings at the
Human Robot Interaction conference in San Diego earlier this month.

Saulnier’s team used NIA, a gaming peripheral from OCZ that reads bioelectrical signals from gamers and translates it into on-screen actions. For instance, gamers who wear the NIA (neural impulse actuator) headband can use some basic thoughts and eye movements to control a video game.

The team mapped NIA to the Roomba and used indicators such as muscle tension to control robot speed. The more tense a muscle, the greater the indication of stress, which in turn acts a signal for the Roomba to back off. (Read the complete paper)

The idea is to prove that mapping the emotional state of a user to the emotional state of a robot is possible with existing technology, say the researchers.

“People have often asked me about the potential real-world applications of this,” says Saulnier. “The example I like to use is an emotion-sensing robot could that could be used to monitor the health of an elderly relative and react if something is detected of concern.”

While it may be an interesting idea, there are technical challenges currently, says Saulnier. But it is something the team hopes to investigate next.

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/researchers-tes/#ixzz0pJrCOlWV