Home networking

As you move from your bedroom to the kitchen or the living room in the morning, radio frequency ID sensors start a chain reaction that gets gadgets in your home to start working. The lights and the air conditioning come on as you enter a room, and your radio or TV is automatically turned on to your favorite channel or station. By the time you reach the kitchen, the electric kettle has already boiled the water for your coffee, and your fridge has alerted the supermarket that you'll need more milk tomorrow.

The future of the home is in the network and it is a Holy Grail that companies ranging from Cisco to Intel to Sony are pursuing. But if any country has a shot at leading the way, it is Korea.

Home networking is one of the nine key new technologies that Korea has earmarked. On the ground floor of the Ministry of Information and Communication's headquarters building in downtown Seoul is a "Ubiquitous Dream" exhibition hall that features a fully functioning and dazzling home network.

Home networks combine telecommunications, broadcasting, construction, appliances and software solutions together to link everything in a home and connect it with the rest of the world.

Sensors and chips embedded in devices around the home sense, process and exchange information to create the ultimate in convenience. "We are connecting everything around us," says Hyun Park, vice president of LG Electronics. "The goal is convenience as well as automated security features. Home networks help save money, manage energy and keep our home safe."

LG, a big manufacturer of home appliances, consumer electronics and communications products like cellular handsets, is a trail blazer in home networks. It is the first company in the world to commercialize products such as the Internet-enabled refrigerator, which can be connected through broadband and also acts as a home server or main gateway to the home network.

LG's $5,000 Internet fridge comes equipped with a 15-inch display, which can be used to watch TV, surf the net, download email, play music through its MP3 function or listen to satellite radio. It has video messaging built in and can keep track of the family schedule. You can record a video message for family members through a built-in camera and save several hours of messages on the fridge's storage--its hard drive. The appliance also keeps track of the amount of food inside the fridge, as well as key information such as "use by" dates for perishable products.