Helen Greiner, iRobot president and cofounder, is giving a commercial. She shows an ad. She tells us her company is hot. She tells us that her company’s robotic vacuums (Roombas) pick up more dirt than conventional vacuums and cost less than the competitors. The only topic of technical interest she touches on is how Roombas escape from tricky areas of houses.

In her demo of the vacuum, she actually sprinkles crumbs on the floor, like every door-to-door vacuum sales person in history. Oy veh.

Vacuum robots are just the tip of the iceberg, she says. [Let’s hope so.] The deep change with robotic systems is: “Sensing tied through intelligent algorithms to action.” Her robots respond to the world, not a model of the world. [Interesting — very Rodney Brooks — but a trivial example. The Roomba vacuum is like a bumpercar that sucks.] In the future: They’ll respond to voice and will find their own power to recharge. [Yawn.]

I left and missed the last half hour. In the hallway, I got to talk with Bob Frankston and Micah Sifry. Very cool.

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