Personal and Home Electronics and Our Changing Lifestyles

In this paper, we review the dramatic impact that technology has had on society and past predictions about future technology, and predict the impact of future technology. The methods with which technology affects society can be categorized into what we will call lifestyle "waves" of change. We will describe three specific types of waves and how they affect specific types of personal and home electronics. The lifestyle waves we will consider are: 1) time and place independence; 2) interactivity; and 3) integration of the physical and information worlds. We will consider how these waves influence three categories of personal and home electronics: 1) home appliances (i.e., washing machines, dishwashers, etc.); 2) audio/video products (i.e., TVs, stereos, etc.); and 3) personal electronic gadgets (i.e., mobile phones, navigational devices, etc.). These waves typically are introduced into one category of electronics and rapidly cross pollinate to all categories. We will also discuss how specific trends in technology, such as hardware, software, user interfaces, and content distribution, can generate these lifestyle waves of change. Finally, we make some predictions on how these waves and trends in technology may impact personal and home electronics in the future.