High Tech walker with GPS-like KIT the car say "bedroom"&it takes U there

[papau]

indeed on NPR they said you could have a remote control and the misplaced walker would locate you and make its way to you! I still want that smart car called in Kit in the TV series that says "I dob't really think you want to go there" - but this is a good start.

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Tech-Innovations-Just-Getting-Started/story.xhtml?story_id=101004D2WK5L

Tech Innovations Just Getting Started

December 16, 2005 10:44AM

Both Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft are working on building such a surface into a coffee table, which would be loaded with electronics and connected to the Internet. "People can sit around the coffee table and surf the Web, share digital photos and videos and play games," says an HP Labs document. <snip>

Stanford has built a prototype of an intelligent walker with embedded sensors, voice recognition and Global Positioning System technology. Grandpa might stand in his walker and say "bedroom." The GPS combined with indoor sensors could know where the walker is, map the route to the bedroom and avoid hazards such as stairs, low furniture, and the cat while guiding Grandpa to bed. <snip>

A decade from now when you want a plastic knob for your dishwasher, instead of ordering it from a factory in Outer Jabip, you could load its design from the Web and make it using a 3-D fabrication machine.

Neal Gershenfeld of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is working on "home fabs." He's already built a prototype, but it would barely fit in a garage and costs $20,000. He predicts that in 10 years or so, home fabs will cost $1,000 and be as commonplace as ink-jet printers. <snip>