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jodi forlizzi conducted an ethnographic study about vacuum cleaners called a ‘product ecology,’ essentially an object-centered analysis of how people adapt to new types of things, in this case robotic vacuum cleaners as compared to conventional ones. she gave some families roombas and others regular stick-type vacuum cleaners, and she observed significant differences in how people accepted them. most importantly, the roombas made people clean more often and encouraged more people to vacuum, ‘not just the traditional female household member serving in the role of homemaker and caregiver.’ also, the roombas were given names and social attributions. she concludes that designing lifelike, sociable robots makes people love them and rapidly adopt them. she also decides, oddly, that people should ‘design environments to adapt to robotic products, as well as products that adapt to environments.’ further study might be necessary to determine the kind of world that the robots will create when they take over.
. Leo is a artist, inventor and all around practical person in the Tangible Media Group at the Media Lab. He has a background in sculpture, architecture and industrial design as well as an MS from the Media Lab spent working on the kitchen of the future. He is on a search for truth.
