When we picture people programming robots or diving into technical projects, the mental image we get usually involves someone very seriously tinkering with machines to fulfill a great purpose.
Whether they’re scientists trying to save the world or shady hackers trying to expose some protected data, it’s easy to see the impact of what they’re trying to accomplish. After all, even someone as sarcastic and jokey as Tony Stark is still trying to build extremely important Iron Man suits.
However, some programmers have a different, but similarly challenging goal in mind. They pledge their technical knowledge towards something that will work effectively, but doesn’t actually serve any practical purpose.
One YouTuber has earned a lot of acclaim by doing this and the full video shows his latest and perhaps most beloved creation yet.
Be advised that the full video contains very strong language.
Michael Reeves is a programmer who dedicated his YouTube career to making the silliest robots possible.
Some of his creations include a robot that shoots him with a pellet every time he gets shot in Fortnite , a system of electric nodes that shock his muscles in such a way that he’s forced to dab, and a robot that squirts energy drink fluid at him.
This week, however, he unveiled a Roomba that screams, swears, and curses its existence whenever it bumps into anything.
This was an idea he had apparently toyed with a while back, but felt compelled to go through with it when a flood of comments came in demanding he give them their screaming vacuum.
As he plopped it down, he said, “I hate every single one of you.”
Hate them as he may, he also gave them what they wanted.
He took a Roomba and either added or made use of the Roomba’s existing collision-detecting sensors to feed into a portable computer known as a Raspberry Pi.
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Each collision then triggers that Raspberry Pi to play various audio files through an attached Bluetooth speaker.
To demonstrate, he starts punching his Roomba, which then says a variety of curse words.
As he continues his assault, the Roomba then laments the fact that he programmed it to a life of constant torment and identifies this as proof of the cruelty of humans.
And while that was all well and good, Reeves thought it was missing something.
While there’s certainly some charm in a robot asking why it was programmed to feel pain, he thought it would be more effective if it expressed its misery in a human voice.
And so, he asked various other YouTubers to provide voice clips of them doing their own screaming and cursing.
The result was a Roomba that screams with unnerving realism whenever it bumps into something.
And as someone who owns a Roomba, I can tell you that it bumps into things at least every five minutes.
But as much fun as Reeves had making his friends uncomfortable with his creation, he decided to conduct some more ambitious “market research.”
So he brought his special Roomba to his local Target and let it loose in the interest of seeing whether customers would want this special edition.
And, mischievous sort that Reeves is, he added a fun little prank at the end.
To see that and just to see this hilariously miserable robot in action, check out the full video.
