A
It's the space where commodities traders turn into couch potatoes and kids spend every waking moment from the terrible twos to the terrifying teens. Whatever you want to call it--the living room, the family room, the playroom--it's now the most wired room in the house, even more so, surprisingly, than the home office. So it's about time you got some R&R (Rest and Relaxation) payback from all that technology.
B
Despite many changes in the past few decades, we're essentially doing the same things in the family room we've always done. These include watching TV and movies, listening to music, and communicating with friends. But now we've gone hi-tech. The capabilities and quality of the devices we use today have improved dramatically, and there's much more to come. Parts of your future living room are currently well-defined and developed, but hooking them all up into a cohesive whole is still like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle.
C
In recent years, TVs have become bigger and more beautiful. But we're still paying a high price for the size and beauty. Take, for example, Toshiba's 65-inch Theater Wide HD Projection TV, which is big enough to make you feel like you're really in a movie theater. As it costs almost $ 8, 500, you could practically hire some actors to perform in your living room for less. But you're paying for the size and picture quality of a projection TV, as well as future-proofing support for digital High-Definition TV.
D
The great thing about life in the 21st century is how much easier when you get home. In Tokyo the folds at Panasonic have built a mockup of what they call "the house of the future". In the future, it's gonna be video mail and starts when you do a fingerprint analysis to let the computer know you're home. Sensors then note your presence, turn on the lights and set each room's temperature to your preference, or fire up the 500-channel, 50-inch plasma TV, which can store a hundred hours of TV programs in the main home computer.