After seeing the R2-D2 Vacuum Cleaner that Agent-Spiff over at Deviant Art recently designed, most Star Wars geeks probably wondered what sorts of scanners, appendages and mechanical abilities the vacuum featured.
But we’re not Star Wars geeks. We’re filter geeks. So the first thing we thought was, “I wonder what kind of air filter is in that astromech droid?”
Right now, the Artoo vacuum cleaner is simply a photoshop, but I assume that something as technologically-impressive as the R2-D2 Vacuum Cleaner would have to use a HEPA Vacuum Filter cartridge, which can filter out 99.97% of all airborne pollutants 0.3 microns or larger.
0.3 microns is pretty infinitesimal, in case you were wondering. To put it in Star Wars terms, a grain of sand in the desert of Tatooine is around 100 microns (assuming that planet’s sand is similar to Earth’s). Since these sands were so problematic to the droid, I have to imagine the new R2-D2 Vac would improve upon Artoo’s susceptibility to sand.
While the R2-D2 Vacuum Cleaner isn’t in production yet, it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw something like this launched soon. After all, R2-D2’s likeness has graced postal boxes across the country, and the Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition was just released yesterday.
If the Artoo vacuum ever sees the light of day, you can bet that we’ll be the first to carry the vacuum filters, bags and belts to keep him scurrying about your living room.
Leave a Reply