Roombas have been busy mapping our homes, and now that data could be shared

Over the past couple of years, Roombas haven’t just been picking up dust and

chauffeuring cats around, they’ve also been mapping the layout of your home. Now, Colin Angle, the chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot, has said he wants to share the data from these maps in order to improve the future of smart home technology. In 2015, iRobot introduced the Roomba 980, its first Wi-Fi-connected model. This meant that while a Roomba was quietly whirring around your floors, it was also collecting spatial data using visual localization, sensors, and more. This data helps the Roomba figure out how your home is laid out and adjust cleaning patterns on-the-fly to deal with things like moved furniture. But Angle thinks it could be put to use by more devices. "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. Angle says that this data won’t be shared without permission, but Reuters says he thinks “most would give their consent in order to access the smart home functions.                                                                                          https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/24/16021610/irobot-roomba-homa-map-data-sale