Roombas As Pets

People love to anthromorphize robots. I'm not sure why, but they do, and because of this the Smith family is now selling Roomba costumes at myRoomBuds.com. Greg Smith (the father) says,

"My kids started a business to sell costumes for Roombas. We have two and are now just another one of their pets alongwith the dog, fish, and gerbil."

When I asked about how the business got started, Greg said that the children, age 14, 11, 8, and 6, got their love of robots from working around BattleBot builders, "including Carlo Bertocchini with BioHazard and Donald Hudson with EastyBeast."

We experimented a bit and found what would work and what caused problems. I did a bit of Googling and found that quite a few people have named their Roombas and feel pretty much the same way as the kids. So... Being the little entrepreneurs that they are, they asked if my wife and I could help them out making and selling the costumes.

This story has already generated a lot of buzz, and has been picked up by Engadget and BoingBoing. I hope the kids can keep up with the demand!

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