Stripes in the pattern become a problem
How smart are smart home gadgets really? The answer is once again sobering, as a recent case shows.
Vacuum cleaner robots are actually a great thing – at least when they are doing what they are supposed to do. Unfortunately, they don’t always do that.
Vacuum robots are equipped with various sensors to find their way around at home and not to have an accident. This includes, for example, object detection and collision protection, but also fall protection so that the smart household help does not fall down the stairs. Depending on the device, there is still a lot of room for improvement, as a recent tweet shows.
Dmitry Krotov’s robot vacuum cleaner Roomba tries desperately to break out of his prison – and does not realize that the abysses that seem to surround him are only stripes in the pattern of the carpet. No wonder that its owner wishes that the developers of the device had considered the existence of a wide variety of patterns. The physicist, who works on neural networks and machine learning technologies himself, must first vacuum his carpet himself – or upgrade to a newer model. They wouldn’t have this problem anymore explains an employee of the manufacturer iRobot.
Vacuum robots delight their owners again and again with their strange and sometimes questionable actions. Most famous and notorious are the devices that did not recognize what was left of pets and subsequently distributed them evenly and emphatically throughout the room – but such poop calypses should be avoided with the help of AI in the future.
A simple pattern of salt is enough to lock the self-driving car in. (Screenshot: Vice / t3n)
The artist knows that it is not only vacuum cleaner robots that get into awkward situations James Bridle already shown in 2017. In a magical circle made of salt, he locks a self-driving car that can no longer move. Behind this, however, there is less magic and magic than science: The dashed lines on the outside allow the vehicle to pass, while the circle on the inside signals that the line must not be touched.
Recently even has Tesla’s Elon Musk Commented on this curiosity and explained via Twitter that a Model 3 with autopilot function would also fall into this trap. The full self-driving mode is not to be tricked; but with a ring of traffic cones.
In our comprehensive overview article “How to find the best vacuum and floor mopping robot for you” you can find out more about the topic if you feel like a more or less smart household help.
