Since even before we were promised ovens that warmed our food in seconds thanks to invisible 'micro waves', we've been fascinated by how technology could make it easier for us to eat, relax and generally laze about. We visited the Virgin Media Ideal Home of the Future at the Ideal Home Show in London's Earl's Court to see how we'll be living in years to come.
Virgin showed off a demo of its 200Mb broadband, currently being trialled in Coventry. That sort of speed is still a way off, but the company reckons it will be providing some customers with 100Mb broadband by the end of 2010.
The home of the future is packed with gadgets selected with the help of The Gadget Show's Suzi Perry, from a bath that fills itself when it detects you nearing the house to a toothbrush that checks your gob for biometric data and sends a health update to your doctor. Outside your future gaff is a secure, refridgerated dropbox for your online shopping, so there's no excuse to be late for work when you were waiting for the Ocado man.
This year's home of the future is all about the the 'Internet of things', a philosophy of connecting everyday objects to the Web via RFID tags in stuff around the household. Examples include picking up your umbrella to trigger weather reports appearing on your TV, or your house detecting that your keys have arrived to tell friends and family that you are home safe.
Click 'Continue' to see how we'll be living in years to come, which will apparently involve wall-mounted moose saving us from fires, re-using water, and never getting out of bed.