from Wired -
Just as owners of robot pets like Sony's Aibo develop emotional attachments to their mechanical companions, people are acquiring similar feelings for their robot vacuum cleaners.
The two leading robovac manufacturers -- iRobot and Electrolux -- report that owners treat their robovacs somewhat like pets.
More than half the owners of iRobot's Roomba name their device, claims the Burlington, Massachussetts, company. Owners often talk to their machines, and many treat them as though they were alive, or semi-sentient, anyway. Some even take them on holiday, unwilling to leave them at home alone.
... Likewise, Electrolux, which sells the Trilobite robovac in Europe, reports that owners regard their device like a household pet, product manager Jonas Carlsson says. Most name their Trilobite, and the Sweden-based company often receives congratulatory phone calls, letters, poems and pictures from owners, especially children.
When one customer needed repairs for her Trilobite, which she named Matilda, she insisted that her machine, and not a replacement, be returned.
... Another Roomba owner, Linda Rust, said she talks to her device, which she calls Zoomer.
"I do talk to Zoomer," she said. "I talk back to him when he's beeping.”
full article here