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Study: Roomba Owners Get Deeply Attached to Robots


roomba

People give them nicknames, worry when they signal for help and sometimes even treat them like trusted pets.

The Roomba is an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner sold by iRobot. Under normal operating conditions, it is able to navigate a living space and its obstacles while vacuuming the floor. [Source: Wikipedia]

Read more about a newly released Georgia Tech study shows that some Roomba owners become deeply attached to the robotic vacuums and suggests there’s a measure of public readiness to accept additional robots in the house — even flawed ones.

“They’re more willing to work with a robot that does have issues because they really, really like it,” said Beki Grinter, an associate professor at the school’s College of Computing. “It sort of begins to address more concerns: If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn’t have to be as reliable.” Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299022,00.html#ixzz1QVwwDJL3

Dress up: My Roombud

Roomba owners often even dress up their ‘pet’ to give it a personality:
Source: www.myroombud.com


Motto

I believe that consumers nowadays are looking for rich sensorial, emotional and meaningful experiences, not merely for ‘just’ a product or service. It is up to the companies to challenge their designers, R&D department and marketers to (positively) influence the experiential impact of their products and services.
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the Design and Emotion Society