Hacking The Roomba

from the have-fun dept

The last time we mentioned the Roomba, we mentioned that the folks who made it were thrilled that a "Roomba hacking" community had built up around the device (the exact opposite reaction compared to Sony's reaction upon finding out people were hacking the Aibo). Now, Popular Science delves a little deeper into this Roomba hacking community and suggests it might just be two guys. However, they did receive an email from the makers of the Roomba encouraging them to keep on hacking. It appears that the Roomba has some features that make it easy to hack (the hardware is straight-forward) and some that make it difficult (the software). Still, when you're done having it vacuum your floor, you might want to see what else you can train it to do.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    data64, 10 Sep 2003 @ 6:08am

    Fetch beer ?

    I imagine "fetch beer" would be a popular hack, followed closly by "Find the car keys".

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    John Sullivan, 10 Sep 2003 @ 10:54am

    Population of Roomba Hackers

    Given the number of hits to my journal that come from people Googling "Roomba Hack" because several months ago I mentioned that I'd bought one, I'm pretty sure it's more than just a couple of guys.

    JS

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Sep 2003 @ 2:16pm

    Roomba SUCKS ... and swallows too !

    Considering the Roomba(tm) is a suction machine, I wander how me Roomba(tm) hacktavists are really 16 year old pimpply faced geeks looking for an alternative to a hum job they can't get from a human ?
    Just a thought

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      T, 6 Jan 2004 @ 7:25am

      Re: Roomba SUCKS ... and swallows too !

      You're a really sad person with nothing to do. By the way are 16 and pimply faced.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.