iRobot continues to market its Roomba line, but the truth is that robotic vacuum cleaners have not become a mainstay in the average American home. With that in mind, iRobot is introducing two new household robots today. The first is the Looj, a gutter-cleaning robot. We think that the company must have reasoned: a. men are more likely to buy robots than women, b. men are more likely to clean their house's gutters than are women, therefore c. this gutter-cleaning bot will be huge.

The Looj can clean a 60-foot section of gutter in ten minutes, and is controlled by a remote control (though whenever something's governed by a remote control, we doubt whether it's a robot: isn't it just like a sophisticated remote controlled electric car toy?) We're not sure exactly how it will turn corners, but we'll let you know as soon as the company's keynote is over. The Looj will cost $99.

UPDATE: The Looj does not turn corners. Instead you have to move your ladder around the house and place it into each individual gutter by hand. iRobot CEO Colin Angle called it "a mini tank," explaining that the Looj uses some technology from the company's military research branch. It's available starting today from iRobot's website.

— S.E. Kramer

Via iRobot