Broadcom's Digital Home Of The Future

What does the "Digital Home of the Future" look like? Well, for one, it doesn't appear that there are any flying cars parked in the driveway. There are no robot maids and no one eats filet mignon and scalloped potatoes in the form of a pill.

But at the Broadcom Experience, a recent media and analyst event held in San Francisco, the company exhibited numerous "home of the future" technologies that might be closer to reality than you think. And we will probably soon take them for granted, as we have with laptops, smart phones, fruit dryers, salad shooters, and plasma screen TVs.

Here's a glimpse into a future that is just around the corner.

The "Connected" Office

Thanks to Broadcom, multitasking from home might be a little easier. (So yes, you can essentially do more work faster, which will ultimately allow you to do even more work. Hmmm) The wireless digital office allows remote workers to listen to music, print wirelessly, talk on Skype, manage a server remotely, make the kids dinner and fix the disposal (OK, maybe not the last two items). But the new wireless digital home office products will allow home workers to perform numerous functions seamlessly -- all on a high speed wireless backbone.

From Cell To Screen

The living room of the future will be like a high-tech mini movie theater. Well, close enough. The way Broadcom envisions it, viewers will be able to watch "Gray's Anatomy" and "American Idol" with streaming technology that offers super-duper high definition. But not just on your big screen. You'll also see high definition images when you capture videos recorded on your cell phone. Pretty cool, eh?

That Vudu That You Do

Simple, easy, unobtrusive. Broadcom's Home of the Future appears to incorporate Vudu, the latest home entertainment system for watching movie content around the home.

More "Connected Office"

You can call it a home office on speed. From your home, you'll be able to use simultaneous wireless applications such as streaming, printing, and VoIP -- all while listening to music from your PC with a Bluetooth headset and receiving a Skype call. Not too shabby. BTW -- all these normal office functions are delivered via wireless Internet.

Wake-on-LAN

During the Wake-on-LAN demo, Broadcom featured a way to wake the server from a remote laptop and perform high-energy functions such as grabbing photos and music files from iTunes (even if you're not entirely awake yourself). The function saves energy, but can also maintain flexibility and mobility with its remote capabilities.

Just remember to watch where you put your coffee in the morning.

Almost Real Life

It's certainly not your grandmother's cell phone handset. OK, not every household can stream videos from their phones to their flat screen TVs -- but just wait. You'll soon be able to record the latest high definition video on your cell phone handset with cinema-quality high definition and then stream it directly to the TV. High-def home videos, here you come.

Music's In The (MacBook) Air

You're already in bed but you left the MacBook Air in the living room. Not a problem. Stream audio via wireless from Apple's MacBook Air to speakers in the bedroom. Or you can watch that odd-looking movie on the LG Blu-ray player in the background. Whatever you fancy, really.

Wireless Wii

Mike Hurlston of Broadcom said he would be "working late" to "test" the latest wireless gaming technology on the Nintendo Wii -- a function which every connected family will obviously have to have. Now here's the question that Hurlston will finally answer: Is the music to Super Mario Brothers less annoying on the wireless Nintendo Wii?

Not Your Grandma's Camera Phone Video

Robert Nalesnik of Broadcom demonstrates the latest high definition video technology, showing the amazing quality of video and movement that the company says will be common on cell phone handsets of the future. Now that cell phone streamed video technology is well underway, it's only a matter of time before we see the beta versions of flying cars, right?

Guitar-net

This new streaming technology adds a whole new dimension to music, for the digital teenage guy who wants to start a digital garage band with his buddies in the digital home. This Gibson guitar is powered over Ethernet technology (and for those of you who weren't there, it sounded pretty cool). Once he gets tired of making music, the digital teenager can just walk five paces to the wireless Wii console and play his favorite Grand Theft Auto game.