Is this what the future holds? It is 6 a.m., and Robert's personal digital assistant (PDA) broadcasts instructions to Robert's pyjamas to wake him without making any noise so as not to disturb his wife.
While Robert gets up, his PDA broadcasts messages to his coffee machine and the toaster in order to have his breakfast ready when he comes down to the kitchen. His PDA has wirelessly downloaded the latest business e-mail and compiled today's appointments and to-do list ready for viewing on the kitchen's webpad. When the PDA is finished doing all this, naturally, it calls up the local taxi company and Robert is finally whisked off to work.
Why the PDA doesn't do the work for him instead is a commentary on how far new technology is lagging behind our aspirations.
However, there is a serious side to all this, and the scenario might not be so far-fetched. Adaptive wireless systems will be able to do our bidding. Researchers at the Cork Institute of Technology are engaged in a project to determine how hardware and software as well as network and system design can be merged.
The team leader, Dr Dirk Pesch of the department of electronic engineering, says wireless systems are already moving from the telecommunications domain of mobile phones into the area of accessing information and controlling a wide range of everyday systems and devices.
"This is happening within the context of convergence between traditional telecommunications systems and the Internet," he says.