I don’t know about you, but the ever since the first time I watched Demolition Man and saw Sly Stallone walk into his hotel room and command the lights to turn on, I have been in awe of the ability to have a room react to your command.

It’s not that I’m lazy, I just love gadgets. In fact, ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you I have a gadget addiction; I will soon be in possession of the latest Sony Ericsson K850i mobile phone. Not because my current phone is unusable, but just because I want it. So when I watched an episode of a gadget programme on Channel 5 some years ago which showed the potential of the X10 networking system, I actually started taking notes as the show progressed. Suddenly a new world opened up in front of my eyes; from automated lights, to personal video recording, beverage making and even music preference, everything could be served to you  simply due to your presence in the room. There would be no need for the touch of a button.

But all of this requires certain inputs and cables: pressure sensors to track your arrival at the door, light sensors to see when you pass from one room to another, and numerous sockets running around your house to allow your various devices to contact one another. Not only is this time consuming to install in the first place, but imagine the amount of chaos caused when you decide to move your PVR and HD TV from the living room to your study!

So fast-forward about 2 years, and there I was riding on the 8:28am train from Richmond to Waterloo. Whilst perusing the morning’s copy of The Metro I was delighted to spy a small column dedicated to the latest in home gadgetry, the plastic “electronic sheet”. This piece of modern wizardry is, as the name suggests, a sheet of plastic that can be inserted anywhere in your house - the dining table, the wall, the floor - wherever your heart desires.

Its function is to allow any gadgets that touch it to transfer data between each other. In the example given, users can stroll in from a hard day’s work, dump keys, phone and iPod onto the kitchen table, and, now kitted out with the new electronic sheet coating, these items will burst into life: transferring your newest MP3 downloads from your PC to the MP3 player, your latest photos from your phone to the PC, and the latest emails and text messages to the TV.

Okay, so there are probably a few steps in between, requiring some software setup and drivers installed, but all in all it’s a very exciting proposition. It no longer sounds so far fetched when you hear the rumours of the Gates family having microchip implants to identify themselves in their automated home, playing their music of choice when they enter a room and the lighting going to a pre-defined setting. Well, not quite so far fetched anyway….

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