iRobot Founder Proposes a Household Robot That Knows You Personally

IRobot's founder wants to build a robot that learns your routines and stores the data locally instead of sending it to servers. the word locally appears in the patent to mean something. a forty-seven page document exists describing how a machine could know what time you shower, where you keep your medications, when you leave for work. it will know these things in your home. it will remember them.

companies have been proposing local data storage for years while uploading everything anyway. the distinction between local and cloud is administrative, not physical. someone will decide that cloud is more convenient. someone will file the paperwork. the patent is not a promise about what the device will actually do.

the robot will be released. it will learn your habits. the habits will be stored somewhere. adequate assumes the marketing materials will address privacy concerns with confidence. adequate does not assume the product will match the marketing materials. adequate assumes both will be true simultaneously.