Go ahead, laugh. By now you've probably heard about the microwave oven that connects to the Net, and the fridge that tracks your grocery list.
Well, don't laugh too hard. Appliance companies - such as Samsung (maker of the Internet-ready microwave), Frigidaire (which, along with ICL, created the smart fridge), and Philips Electronics - are taking this stuff very seriously. And some of the biggest names in computing - including Intel - are sinking big money into digitising furniture and kitchenware.
Mi casa es PC casa
At its recent "La Casa Prossima Futura: The Home of the Near Future" show in the US, Philips Electronics exhibited designs for tomorrow's chefs, including a speech-enabled cook's apron (which lets you turn on the stove with a voice command) and a thermometer-like sensor that gauges the calories in your lasagne. Don't expect these gadgets in your kitchen soon, though; the food analyser and apron won't appear for years, if ever.
Tomorrow's kitchen gets wackier at MIT's Media Lab in Massachusetts, US. Starting with the premise that "the kitchen is no place for a keyboard, and certainly . . . no place for a mouse", the lab's Counter Intelligence Project (yes, that's its name) is developing a talking oven mitt that, when thrust into a hot oven to check the chicken, will tell you if your bird is cooked. Other inventions include a spoon that will measure the spiciness of your chilli; a refrigerator that will not only tell you whether you've got milk, but also order it for you from the corner shop; and a countertop that will talk you through a cordon bleu recipe.
Count on computing companies to have a strong presence in the post-PC household. For example, a Pentium chip runs Frigidaire's smart fridge. And Intel is pushing its StrongARM processors for set-top boxes, game consoles, and other specialised machines. Microsoft hopes that Windows CE will be the OS of choice for these devices.
Chat rooms
The key to the future home is connectivity. Smart appliances won't be much use if they can't talk to each other. Microsoft hopes that Universal Plug and Play will be the lingua franca for domestic network devices. UPP is expected to appear in Windows 9x (code named Millennium and slated to ship in 2000), as well as future versions of Windows CE and Windows 2000.
For obvious reasons, companies such as Microsoft and Intel are determined to keep the PC at the centre of the smart home, as a digital cop for all the devices on a home network. Says Micro-soft product manager Keith Kegley, "Right now, the PC is the only [device] flexible enough to let all these new technologies coexist. . . . Because of their ubiquity, [PCs] will be the single common device on every home network."
Sure, it's a rosy picture, but biases aside, it's a safe bet that even tomorrow's high-tech fridge won't outsmart your PC anytime soon.
