STOCKHOLM — You're just pulling into the parking lot at work when your mind's eye suddenly focuses on a burning orange light on your kitchen counter. You've forgotten to turn off the coffee maker again and will be greeted tonight by the acrid smell of incinerated java.
Or maybe you left the iron plugged in or an upstairs window open, inviting fire or burglary unless you rush home.
But within a few months, homeowners in Europe and North America will be able to run their households and fix their oversights by remote control. With the new "smart" appliances being introduced by companies such as Sweden's Electrolux and Germany's Bosch-Siemens and home networking systems by the world's leading technology firms, cooking, cleaning, home climate control and security can be accomplished with the touch of a telephone button.
The recent breakthroughs in Europe, as well as in Japan and North America, bring to life the fully automated household of the Jetsons, the 1960s space-age cartoon family. Homes can be vacuumed without a human present. Refrigerators can tell the cook what recipes would make best use of the foods stored inside. And family members can communicate with each other via e-mail projected on monitors mounted on the door of an appliance.
"This is all existing technology. It's just a matter of doing it," says Adam Fjaestad, new-product concept manager for Electrolux, as he demonstrates the company's prototype ScreenFridge that developers expect to have on the market by the middle of the year.
The refrigerator serves as the control center for household management, as the flat computer monitor affixed to its door is the interface between appliances and equipment inside the home and such external services as utilities and the Internet. From the computer screen or a wireless handset, a homemaker can send a message to turn off power to the outlet where the iron was left plugged in and steaming. The furnace, lawn sprinklers or oven can be turned on or off from afar, conserving resources.
The ScreenFridge scans groceries as they are placed inside, taking note of the freshness dates recorded in bar codes or microchips and advising the homemaker which shelf has the most suitable temperature for each product.
Computer Suggests Menus, Orders Food
