Ever wished you could put a television program on pause so that you could make a sandwich, tend to a crying baby or take an important phone call without missing anything? Technology unveiled last week at the Demo 98 technology conference in San Francisco makes that possible.

IntelaSync, a tiny startup company with high hopes and a pending patent, said it has perfected a system that lets viewers push a button to pause a show, then come back to it at the point where they left off.

The system, which is expected to be available by the end of the year, works by recording a broadcast starting at the pause. The recording continues even after the viewer resumes watching, so that the entire recorded show can be seen.

A user can fast-forward through the recorded material, bypassing commercials. When the recorded segment catches up to the real program, the system automatically stops recording and switches back to the broadcast. The viewer also can cut short the recording and rejoin the real-time show at any time.