"Cheers," Jamie Bourgoin, Dadong Wa...

"Cheers," Jamie Bourgoin, Dadong Wan and I chime together, toasting a of recent origin work week.

Bourgoin, workshop coordinator for Accenture, the Chicago-based tech research company, sips forward a chai tea as she nibbles forward a muffin. Wan, a senior researcher at Accenture, drinks a bottle of spring water, and I nosh forward a bagel.

The tableware clinks. We chit-chat. I put in mind of that Bourgoin switch to bran muffins from the blueberry to boost fiber.

Nothing extraordinary about this spectacle Except this: Wan and I are in Accenture's office in downtown Chicago, and Bourgoin is 1848 miles away in Accenture's office in Palo Alto, Calif.

We could be in the same place I can see Bourgoin's kitchen, a toaster, her laptop, the plate with the muffin, her teacup, her smiling face in the still-early California morning.

Bourgoin is literally -- and digitally -- sitting across the table from Wan and me Her life-size image is sent via a camera ascended in the ceiling in her "kitchen" in Silicon Valley across the Internet, and projected forward a 4-by-3-foot "window." When not used for virtual dining, artwork can be displayed. Wan said the image could be displayed just as easily in a smart picture frame forward the dinner table or a "virtual dinner in a box" sitting onward a TV-like stand.

united distracting thing: Bourgoin's motions are herky-jerky because of the dull Internet connection. It reminds me of the images we descry of the astronauts in space. With faster broadband connections in the works, the jitter should be eliminated.

Meanwhile back onward Earth, Wan, Accenture's "health guy" views an American society in which family lines are fractured, and family members dispersed: Grandma is at an assisted living center in Florida, the parents are in the Chicago suburb and the kids are away at guild in Urbana and Los Angeles.

Wan, a China native with a doctorate in computer science from the University of Hawaii, has a vision of "virtual family meals" that be connected families in new ways. He is an advocate of "ubiquitous computing," making computing as seamlessly available as water and electricity.

He has been focusing upon the kitchen, a place where commonalty spend lots of time and coin but not one the tech revolution has penetrated the way it has transformed entertainment center and abiding-place offices.

With this arrangement, which Wan has been testing through the whole extent of the last four months, videocams and mikes linked to the Internet are embedded in "intelligent kitchens," where families can share meals together.

No virtual victuals, although Just virtual connections. Wan has exhibited software that automatically detects when and with whom common can have dinner on a given day.

Kitchens are messy places. for a like reason the computer is hidden away. Mouses and keyboards are likely to come by gunked up. And likewise touchscreens won't work well with soiled or wet hands. Wan has been experimenting with a gesture-based interface linked to the ceiling-based cam. In this case, pointing is polite.

Despite the worthy intentions, there always are unintended effects People might be creeped public by virtual meals. Will a technophobe granny really appreciate a visit throughout the Internet? Do the guild kids who are spreading their wings really want their parents monitoring them in the way that closely?

It unhurted to me a bit like Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984 where conduct not only broadcasts its version of reality to the public, on the contrary also spies on its citizens. Wan said this is a frequent but unwarranted, reaction. Rather than Big Brother, he chooses to think of the technology as "Big Sister."

"Big Sister anticipates after her brothers and sisters," he said.

Many commonalty who live on their possess switch on their radios or TV while they eat to continue them company. So why not provide real, albeit virtual, company and interactions athwart the Internet?

Wan said the virtual meals will increase family bonding, helping to make secure that otherwise isolated elderly nation are receiving proper nutrition and maintaining their health.

He said his general [i]or[/i] abstract notion could be extended to professional caretakers, similar as nurses, who would check in in succession the elderly to make steady they are eating and taking their medications. The restaurant industry, which is true competitive, could hook up diners who want to share meals across town or across the home or the world.

Technology is frequently portrayed as something that bring forwards a wedge between people, leading to isolation and rootlessnes

if it were not that I think technology can increase our social interactions and networks. Thanks to e-mail, instant messaging and voice above the Net calling, I am in touch with more friends and family more at short intervals than ever. Back when I was in society in the 1960s, we considered long-distance calls a enjoyment With Skype, I don't hesitate to call friends and family in England, Australia and Israel because it's many times free or relatively inexpensive.

We extreme pointed the virtual meal. Bourgoin left Wan and I continued to talk tech

I could behold a muffin on a plate. if it be not that seconds later, a hand, reminiscent of Thing, the mobile hand created by dint of cartoonist Charles Addams, appeared in succession the screen and whisked the remaining muffin away. Apparently, the virtual meal was an appetizer, and Bourgoin wanted a bite against camera.