Picture this: You're working late at the office and hankering for a meal.

With a click, you call up your refrigerator on your office PC to see what's inside (a bar-code reader within the fridge keeps a running inventory). The refrigerator suggests lasagna but warns that you'll need to buy ricotta cheese - and a few other items. You email a shopping list to your spouse's mobile phone and, with another click, set the oven to the correct temperature so it's hot by the time you get home.

While intelligent homes have long been fodder for science fiction - and a real but recent novelty for corporate executives and Silicon Valley gadget freaks - the lifestyle they offer is not that far away for a wider market.

High-tech companies are developing simple and inexpensive ways to wire together all the digital paraphernalia in the house.

"The networked home is on the horizon," analyst Mr Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies told a crowd recently at Comdex in Las Vegas. As the largest computer show in the world, Comdex is a bellwether for high-tech trends.

With nearly a dozen companies showing off technologies to link PCs and other gadgets, this year's buzz centred on home networking.

While computer networks have been the nerve centres of offices for years, they are a rarity at home. But many analysts think the technology is set to take off.

The driving force: millions of homes worldwide - and 40 million in the US alone - have a personal computer, and a third of those have more than one, according to research firm Dataquest. As PC prices sink below $1,000 (£675) - some Comdex exhibitors displayed sub-$500 desktop machines - the number of multi-computer families is expected to grow quickly. And as it does, suppliers are betting that people will want to link those PCs together.

Why? Money. With a home network, dad's PC and little Suzie's PC can use the household laser printer, fight it out in a multi-player game or share a high-speed Internet connection. As fast but pricey Internet technologies such as ISDN, ADSL and cable modems become more common, home networks could save multi-PC households hundreds of pounds a year by eliminating the need for extra modems, phone lines or Internet accounts.

"Our research indicates that the ability for multiple users to share Internet access is the driving force behind the adoption of computer networks in the home," said Mr Michael Gartenberg, research director at GartnerGroup.

What is more, companies are working to make the technology as simple as plugging in a phone jack - so you will not have to turn your teenager into a system administrator or your house into a spider's web of data cables.

Two Silicon Valley companies - Epigram and Tut Systems - showed technology that networks home digitalia through the telephone wiring. Meanwhile, ShareWave, which has attracted $42 million in venture funding from heavyweights such as Microsoft, Intel and Cisco Systems, announced wireless home networking technology. Other companies are trying to pump data through AC power outlets and coaxial TV cables.

Meanwhile, Diamond Multimedia is shipping a package called HomeFree, which creates a wireless network between two or more PCs for file swapping, printing, Internet access and multi-player gaming. The kit costs less than $200 to link two computers and allows machines up to 150 feet apart to communicate, even when separated by walls, floors and ceilings.

The technology is not intrusive, so you will be able to talk to a friend on the phone while your appliances use the same lines to carry on digital conversations with one another.

Initially, most companies will be hawking home networks designed to circulate data at speeds ranging from 1 million to 4 million bits per second - far faster than most dial-up modems and quick enough to shuttle almost everything but real-time video.

As the speeds of these networks improve, they'll be fast enough to ferry TV signals, so that a DVD-ROM drive in the living room could show movies on any television in the house. Most companies say their technology will cost less than $150 per computer.

But the home networking gear makers are excited about more than PCs. As cheap microprocessors proliferate in household appliances, gadgets ranging from latte-makers to lawn-mowers will become "smart". And a home network will allow them to talk to one another.

Philips Electronics, the Dutch giant, has unveiled a device called Ambi, which uses ShareWave's wireless networking technology to turn a television into a second computer "desktop". That means the children can play a game or surf the Internet in the living room while you do your taxes in the home office - all tapping the power of a single PC.

While many of these "information appliances", are geared toward the living room, many analysts think the future is elsewhere in the home.

"The centre of the home is the kitchen," said Mr Michael Aymar, vice-president and general manager of Intel's Consumer Products Group.

For example, the Italian appliance maker, Merloni Elettrodomestici, is developing a line of appliances - from dishwashers to ranges - that can communicate with one another and their owners through the Internet. The company's intelligent oven is programmed with cooking instructions that can be selected by remote control. New recipes can be downloaded over the Internet.

Meanwhile, a Japanese company called V-Sync Technology has developed a prototype "Internet refrigerator" with a built-in Pentium II microprocessor and hard drive. The superfridge is controlled with a touch panel monitor, embedded in the door, that also offers Internet access. Homeowners will be able to use it to call up a recipe, order food through an online grocery store or check the day's weather and news.

Other companies are trying to wire new homes for the next century. The wiring in most older homes is not robust enough for extremely fast data transmission, but builders are slowly beginning to add more robust cabling, such as Category 5 network wire and other data pipes designed for high-speed telecommunications.

IBM this year launched a home automation and networking initiative called Home Director Professional that combines a 20-year-old technology for controlling appliances, called "X-10," with new, high-speed wiring.