(mashedmarket)

My vacuum cleaner is nothing short of amazing. It has an “Inteli-Clean system” that — get this — “detects cleaning needs and adjusts cleaning power.” Basically, it’s a divining rod driven by science that lends dirt finding some much-needed EXCITEMENT.

It’s like this: you’re pushing the vacuum along and it finds something grimy. You can’t see anything on your carpet, but you notice the machine’s constant ***whiRRRrr*** deepen to a lower rumble. What’s more, its headlight dims as if it’s thinking hard about something. A meter near the handle indicates just how much a power is being diverted to suction — one bar of four at present. The thing kicks up to two while you’re watching, and you can feel the engine rev. It hits three bars, and suddenly you know how dirty this spot on the rug is. At four, the motor’s needs practically extinguish the headlight, and the vacuum’s roar is just short of deafening.

Then, it calms down and you keep moving. Push, pull, repeat. All the while hoping to find another feedback-rich nasty patch.

While it’s hard to overstate just how small the reward is, this process does (somehow) make you feel like you’ve accomplished something more significant than simply pushing a vacuum around. Stumbling across those little swatches of grub is like finding gold, man! And for me, it turns the whole chore into something like a game. The simple act takes on brand new significance when given a means of measuring its effectiveness. I wish more of my appliances would offer the same.