House filled with dreams and possibilities

The jewel in Microsoft's research crown is the place where it gets to show visitors a real glimpse of the future: the Microsoft House.

The "house" is not a stand-alone structure but part of Microsoft's stylish and understated conference and executive centre in its Redmond, Washington headquarters. The house is not open to the public but has become such a star attraction that tours, which run Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., must be booked months in advance and, increasingly, are limited to senior executives and special guests.

Even proponents of the ABM (anything but Microsoft) perspective will be impressed by the integration of forward-looking technology in the sprawling Scandinavian-style house.

Tour guide Mr Jonathan Clutz of Microsoft's prototyping team says the point of the house is to "take some of the things in Microsoft Research and see how they might impact people's lives".

Microstate limits itself to technologies it believes will become reasonably priced products within two to six years. The theme of the house is one of smart devices - computerised instruments with inbuilt intelligence - running on a mostly wireless, broadband network.

Some of the features are attractive but not very surprising, such as the ability to control lights, door locks and entertainment systems from any room via wall-mounted panels. However, parents will appreciate what Mr Clutz called a "homework feature" - the ability of a parent to shut off music and other distractions in a room.

The kitchen has a Star Trek-like talking computer, and intelligent appliances that know what food items need replenishment, how long to cook a microwave meal and when to signal people in other rooms that a meal is ready. The dining room has plasma screen displays; small, framelike ones that can rotate through a range of pictures, and a large one that could be used to include a distant relative in a family meal by means of videoconferencing.

A bedroom had next-generation entertainment systems for filing photos, showing films and listening to music, which can be pulled down from satellite or cable sources, or from any storage device in the house, such as a PC.

The family car, also with a wireless connection, could automatically sense new CDs or music files on any computer in the house and download them to its memory.

The house would be relatively safe from hackers, Mr Clutz said, because all the devices are on a peer-to-peer network and don't rely on a central server.

"I think tech people, myself included, tend to think about devices that might end up doing things that humans already do perfectly well," admitted Mr Clutz.

But the house convinces visitors that much of what is on view is not just feasible but desirable. And of such dreams are computer companies' futures made.