LG’s New Vacuum Cleaner and Security Device

LG vacuum cleaner uses smartphone pairing to clean floors

CES 2012 - LG HOM-BOT robot vacuum cleaner (6764015169)
Predecessor: an earlier version of the LG Hom-Bot vacuum cleaner, seen at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. Image by Pop Culture Geek, 2012 (Creative Commons License).
Today’s vacuum cleaners have come a long way since the Dyson, let alone the Hoover Junior.  Miniaturisation has seen today’s smaller models perform the task of bigger brothers with ease.  Some of which are wireless and clean floors through sensing technologies.  Revealed at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is LG’s addition to the fold.

The Hom-Bot Turbo+ vacuum cleaner not only employs similar technologies to its rivals (by Roomba and Dyson).  It has two unique functions.  Both of which can be controlled by your smartphone after pairing your device with the vacuum cleaner.

The first one entails location based vacuum cleaning.  Using the camera of your smartphone, you can point it to the part of your house or office which you would like to see cleaned.  After setting your desired position, the Hom-Bot Turbo+ goes to that part of the house or office and goes its merry way. At home, vacuuming may cease to be the idea of dragging an upright or cylindrical vac along the carpet. Great for catching up on last week’s telly.

Its second feature sees the vacuum cleaner perform another useful trick.  That of crime prevention. The Turbo+ comes with three built-in cameras which are used to detect floor space.  Its other use entails patrolling your house and sensing any changes in motion. Images are relayed to your paired smartphone, which enables you to monitor your home from a great distance.

If you choose the first function, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy your favourite television programme.  Or, you can view the progress of your clean through its Home-View mode.  Potentially, you could be elsewhere and see where the vacuum is up on its clean.

Though network connected vacuum cleaners have been the preserve of the enthusiast market, LG is the first mainstream company to adopt this technology.  Mapping technology isn’t exclusive to the Hom-Bot; the Samsung PowerBOT VR9000 is a similar make (£499.99 from a popular non-food retailer).  The Hom-Bot Turbo+ seems to be the first to have security systems.  Only one problem, what happens if Turbo+ detects an intruder who decides to… steal the titular state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner?  The pictures seen from the paired mobile could be interesting though.

We at Cleanhire like LG’s latest development and from what we’ve learned, the Turbo+ has a number of useful features.  Its dual role as a portable CCTV still image camera and a vacuum cleaner could be a winner among households.  It takes the heat out of vacuum cleaning, though it’s not without its limitations.  Firstly, the issue of cleaning stairways. Another problem is the likelihood that small dogs could try to chase it around the house.

Just to give you a flavour of what to expect, here’s a video clip of one of LG’s earlier models, the LG Hom-Bot Square from August 2013:

Cleanhire, 14 January 2016.