Huddled Masses

So, Microsoft has unveiled the next incarnation of their home of the future, and it seems tamer and more achievable than previous versions. Although it does sport biometric keyless entry, the focus is on networking.

There are touch panel video screens throughout the house (some can even be painted over so they blend into the walls, and the image shines through the paint when you touch it, how sweet is that?) , for viewing everything from food delivery menus, to voice-mail messages left by visitors at the front door (the voicemail/email/front doorbell are all tied together). There are microphones embeded in all the walls for verbally controlling the various functions: “Hal, set scene: Welcom home;” “Hal: Play voicemails.” There are multi-media functions in every room, predictably tied to downloading/storing/finding and playing music protected by Microsoft’s latest anti-piracy measures.

Another big bet by Microsoft: everything has RFID tags, and everything else reads them, so the kitchen knows what ingredients are on hand for cookies, or when you’‘re running low on milk; the mirrors in the children’s rooms tattle on them if they try to wear things that aren’t up to dress code on a school day; the screen on the refrigerator switches from the weather forecast to the “specials of the day” from the pizza shop when you move their magnet from the side of the fridge to the front; and the washing machine refuses to run when your daughter recklessly mixes her delicates blouse with her jeans and tries to wash them in hot water…

Oh yeah, and in the future, everything is a dirty cream color like old linen.

P.S. The NY Times has an article about this too, from which I pulled the topic of this post, but it wasn’t a very good article. The author seemed more interested in the fact that their tour guide called Bill Gates “Bill G.” than in details about the house. Despite that, it was copied verbatim on CNet

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