The Robo Maid
A few hours ago I saw an ad on TV for the Robo-Maid. The best I can tell, it's a combination of a metal cage with a swiffer-sweeper style "electrostatic dust pad" on the bottom and a weasel ball. That's right — as far as I can tell, the "Robotic Ball" which powers the Robo-Maid is in fact just a weasel ball. It seems to have an lcd display on it, but other than that it looks like and acts like a normal weasel ball. Perhaps unfortunately, it does not come with a weasel attached (It would probably help to collect dust). As the weasel ball rolls along on your floor, it pushes the metal cage along with it, apparently collecting dust.
If you've never seen a weasel ball in action, it basically rolls in a drunken fashion until it runs into something, at which point it's drunken spinning causes it to turn and go the other way. I'm guessing the removal of the weasel from the equation helps them get a less drunken motion out of their Robo-Weasel-Duster. This purely random brownian motion, I suppose, does mean that the Robo-Maid will eventually cover most of your floor, provided it doesn't get stuck in a corner (something that I'm afraid will happen all-too-often with a weasel-ball–powered duster).
While this is obviously another product which, through the use of clever advertising, will be made out to be much mor eaffective than it is so the inventor can make a quick buck .If you watch the commercial, which conveniently starts playing as soon as you load their site, you can see that the never show it in action for extended periods of time, and make it seem as if it's fairly goal-oriented, crossing the room in straight lines until the job is done. I have no doubt that it will cross a room in a straight line when someone pushes it in that direction before the camera starts rolling, but I'm sure it will be less affective in real life. Also, I can't help but think it would be quite loud.
However, despite all this, I wonder if perhaps it would actually work. The noise could be an issue, and the effectiveness of "Electro-static cleaning pads" is up for debate, but otherwise I can't help but think that it's a fairly clever adaptatino of the Weasel-Ball concept. And to you, the clever Sir or Madam who came up with this ingeniously ludicrous idea (which the Invention Channel apparently thinks is a gold-mine), I applaud you. I hope you make lots of money. And I'm sure it will sell like hot-cakes — after all, it's "All the craze in Europe, going for $60!"
If you've never seen a weasel ball in action, it basically rolls in a drunken fashion until it runs into something, at which point it's drunken spinning causes it to turn and go the other way. I'm guessing the removal of the weasel from the equation helps them get a less drunken motion out of their Robo-Weasel-Duster. This purely random brownian motion, I suppose, does mean that the Robo-Maid will eventually cover most of your floor, provided it doesn't get stuck in a corner (something that I'm afraid will happen all-too-often with a weasel-ball–powered duster).
While this is obviously another product which, through the use of clever advertising, will be made out to be much mor eaffective than it is so the inventor can make a quick buck .If you watch the commercial, which conveniently starts playing as soon as you load their site, you can see that the never show it in action for extended periods of time, and make it seem as if it's fairly goal-oriented, crossing the room in straight lines until the job is done. I have no doubt that it will cross a room in a straight line when someone pushes it in that direction before the camera starts rolling, but I'm sure it will be less affective in real life. Also, I can't help but think it would be quite loud.
However, despite all this, I wonder if perhaps it would actually work. The noise could be an issue, and the effectiveness of "Electro-static cleaning pads" is up for debate, but otherwise I can't help but think that it's a fairly clever adaptatino of the Weasel-Ball concept. And to you, the clever Sir or Madam who came up with this ingeniously ludicrous idea (which the Invention Channel apparently thinks is a gold-mine), I applaud you. I hope you make lots of money. And I'm sure it will sell like hot-cakes — after all, it's "All the craze in Europe, going for $60!"
posted by swalker | Wednesday, July 21, 2004
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