Google LLC has a new plan to make smart home devices more useful that involves using data from vacuums.

The search giant today announced that it’s teaming up iRobot Corp., the company behind the hugely popular Roomba family of autonomous vacuum cleaners, in a partnership aimed at harnessing its devices to improve Google Assistant. Specifically, the collaboration focuses on the indoor mapping features in newer Roomba models such as the latest i7+.

The i7+ can create a floor plan of a home using data gathered as part of day-to-day cleaning activities. A low-resolution camera captures an outline of walls and furniture, while a motion sensor generates positioning information by tracking the system’s movements.

This data enables the i7+ to understand location-specific voice commands. A consumer can connect the system to a speaker featuring either Google Assistant or Alexa and issue instructions like “Google, clean the bedroom.” The search giant’s partnership with iRobot aims to bring similar capabilities to other smart home devices.

Colin Angle, chief executive officer of iRobot, laid out what users can expect in an interview with The Verge. He explained out how a Google Assistant-enabled smart light system, for example, could consult a home’s Roomba-created floor plan when a user asks to change the brightness in a certain room and update the appropriate light bulb.

The collaboration with iRobot could make Google Assistant more intuitive to use, particularly in households with a large number of smart devices spread out over different places. But some consumers will likely have concerns about sharing spatial measurements collected inside their homes.

Google and iRobot appear to have taken that into account, with Angle saying that any transfer of mapping data will require “full permission of the users.” Privacy is increasingly becoming a focus in the search giant’s broader smart home efforts as well. Earlier this month, for instance, Google introduced a new smart display called Home Hub that unlike competing products doesn’t include a camera. 

Photo: Google