a socially positive role. One participant said, “It provides a subject
of conversation at work with your
colleagues or when you have guests
at home.” Another important point
is that we did not encounter any
negative prejudice toward robots.
Roomba was often described as
being “cute” and “friendly with
its round shape.” Within families
themselves, household members
influenced each other. For instance,
in one family, on the first day the
father had declared that a vacuum
cleaner like Roomba would never
perform as well as a classical
vacuum: “It does not have as many
watts.” This family never really
adopted Roomba. A quantitative
analysis of our results confirmed
that being part of a particular
household influences how you perceive the robot [ 6].
Factor 7: Economic utility. We
offered Roomba for free as a reward
for participating in our research.
The price was therefore not a barrier
to entry. Nevertheless, as mentioned
earlier, we believe that if people
had to pay for Roomba, price could
have been one of the main adoption
hurdles (the average price is around
$400). For example, one of our participants said, “I am not sure I would
have paid that much. When you
buy Miele, you know what you get.”
Establishing the brand as a quality brand is a challenge. One of our
participants suggested that shops
should enable potential buyers to
try it out for a few days. Cost of
replacement of spare parts and the
longevity of the battery were also
often mentioned as potential issues
to consider when buying Roomba or
even using it further.
• Figure 2.
“Roombarization”
while using
Roomba.
did not have to change their habits
in order to use Roomba. One of our
participants was fond of art and
books. She had many statues she
had sculpted herself on the floor, as
well as piles of books. Other users
liked eating in their living room and
would leave trays on the floor with,
for instance, marmalade on them.
Why would they change their habits
of reading from the piles of books
on the floor or eating in their living
room for a vacuum cleaner? Why
would they give up the pleasure of
being surrounded by art?
Factor 5: Emotional relationship to
technology. Emotional relationship
to technology can be summarized
under two categories: hedonism and
communicating with technology. In
terms of hedonism, nearly all of our
participants manifested enthusiasm
when we brought them Roomba,
especially children (e.g., one wel-
comed us wearing a T-shirt with
a robot on it). In the first weeks of
adoption, Roomba generated enthu-
siasm because of its erratic and
surprising movements. One adult
liked how Roomba would drive back
into its docking station: “It looks like
a Star Wars spaceship.” Some kids
invented a laser game and a “robot
show.” Nevertheless, the enthusiasm
faded quickly. Only a few younger
children (up to five years old) went
on playing with it. Pets were indif-
ferent to Roomba or evolved over
time from angry or afraid to indif-
ferent. We did not observe the
famous You Tube “Roomba cat stroll”
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
ewdbilSWjaM&feature=related).
March + April 2012
Not a Revolution, but an Evolution
Let’s come back to the initial question: Are these vacuum-cleaning
robots starting a revolution in our