WWW.YOURHOUSE.COM

David E. Nash, director of marketing for the Connected.Home Initiative of Intel Corp., housed at the Intel Architecture Labs in Hillsboro, Ore., has a vision of your family life. And it doesn’t bear much resemblance to what most likely happens now.

He sees everyone networked, both within the house and outside, linked by large-screen, real-time displays of people you converse with on the phone or even upstairs. You casually transmit pictures, or even 3-D renderings, as you talk. You play Monopoly though you are separated by hundreds of miles.

Meanwhile, your house itself has become your ally, supplying automated services. When you discard a milk carton, for example, a wireless device scans a code, then transmits it to your electronic grocery list, which is quickly dispatched to your grocery provider when the time is right.

And this is just the beginning. Nash, at Monday’s Hot New Technologies session, predicted these and more innovations will soon enter your lives. In fact, they exist now, though high prices keep them rarities.

"People will pay for compelling lifestyle enhancements," he said, and the market will see prices fall as competition opens up.

Nash sees demand from core customer segments--teens, students, families with young children, "boundary" retirees on the edge of retirement, and empty nesters--as fueling development, and technology advances in telecommunications, wireless and networking as paving the way.

Also, residential broadband is growing off the map, he noted, saying the nascent service boast 3 million users in 2 million households and is likely to explode in the months and years ahead.

Once broadband is installed to a critical mass of households, Nash expects big behavioral changes. With the barriers to ’Net access down, expect people to use the services it offers many times a day for shorter time periods.

-Terence Poltrack