Thursday, February 14, 2008

Disney's House of the Future - reminds me of my childhood memories of Expo 67..

I came across an article in MIT's Technology Review on-line about Disney's revival of the "House of the Future". According to the article, the "$15 million (euro10.32 million) home is a collaboration of The Walt Disney Co., Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., software maker LifeWare and homebuilder Taylor Morrison."


This brought back a few memories from my childhood.

I remember visiting a "kitchen of the future" at Expo 67, in Montreal, Canada, when I was a little girl. The most amazing thing that I saw was a video phone. I was so excited to be told that in the very near future, all families will have video-phones in their kitchens!

Are we there yet?!

This clip of the Telephone Pavilion has a brief demonstration of a video phone. Even better is the demonstration of the "Telephone of the Future". Here is an excerpt:

"The Telephone of the Future - you can make a call from the palm of your hand, you touch buttons, instead of dialing, and it has an electronic tone, instead of a bell.. And one day, completely portable!"

There is a demonstration of call forwarding, a picture phone, and a means to pay bills by phone. (Listen the lyrics of the music in the background.. "this is the way we pay our bills..")




The family takes a trip to Expo '67 - (Not my family!)

(Music on the clip reportedly is from Isao Tomita's electronic music interpretation of Debussy's Pictures from an Exhibition, recorded in 1975, but somehow appropriate.)

Tour of Man in the Community pavilion - discusses man, community, and technology.


Expo 67 in Montreal
(John Whelan)

Expo Lounge
The Expo Lounge Blog
All about Expo 67!

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