Roomba robot vacuum cleaner could collect data about users' homes

BEDFORD, MA - AUGUST 24: The features of the iRobot Roomba are demonstrated in a show room at the iRobot offices, on August 24, 2012 in Bedford, Massachusetts.The Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, is one of a series of cleaning robots made by iRobot. (Photo by Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

Credit: Christian Science Monitor

Credit: Christian Science Monitor

BEDFORD, MA - AUGUST 24: The features of the iRobot Roomba are demonstrated in a show room at the iRobot offices, on August 24, 2012 in Bedford, Massachusetts.The Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, is one of a series of cleaning robots made by iRobot. (Photo by Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)
Business
By Kara Driscoll, Dayton Daily News
July 26, 2017
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The maker of the Roomba robotic vacuum, iRobot, could collect data about the floor plans of customers' homes.

iRobot's chief executive, Colin Angle, told Reuters that iRobot may begin selling floor plans of customers' homes to Google, Amazon or Apple. The information would be sold to tech companies in a push to create "smart homes" controlled by internet-enabled devices, Reuters reported.

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The robotic vacuums can collect data about the dimensions of rooms and information about the distances between tables, furniture and home furnishings.

“There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared,” Angle told Reuters.

Read more.

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About the Author

Kara Driscoll, Dayton Daily News