PROJECTIONS ON TECHNOLOGY BASED ON REALITY OF TODAY

With the dizzying swirl of products introduced each week,sometimes it's worthwhile to step back and look over the big picture.

Battelle, an Ohio consulting company, recently peered into itscrystal ball for a long-range view. It singled out a couple ofproduct trends that it predicts will be technology staples by 2006.

What is striking about its list is that the top picks aren'tfar-out ideas that you'd find only at some of the nation's topcomputer labs. Instead, they are grounded in products you can buytoday.

Here's a sampling:

Personalized computers. Within a decade, Battelle says,computers will learn how you work and play. They will save you timeby anticipating your needs and doing work before being asked.

"The personalized computer will be as mobile and versatile asits user, sending and receiving wireless data and accessinginformation from remote sites," Battelle's report says.

At least one version of this technology is already a reality.

Ex Machina Inc., a New York-based company with an engineeringstaff in Newport Beach, recently announced a computer accessory cardcalled AirMedia Live! that can do just that.

It uses existing paging frequencies to serve as a wireless linkbetween your computer and multiple sources of information either oncommercial on-line services or the Internet.

Next generation TV. Someday our television sets will be aslarge and flat as paintings, Battelle says. These TVs won't be thelarge projection TVs you see today; they will be high definitionmodels with clarity approaching that of a movie screen.

That's not all.

TVs of the next decade won't be just TVs. The screens will dodouble duty as computer monitors, and will be capable of interactingwith an entire network of PCs.

They will be designed for video conferencing, the picture phonesof tomorrow, and will make it possible to have a window on a varietyof other PC networks from the Internet to the computers at youroffice.

Computer companies also have a head start on this trend as well.

Skinny TV exhibits were a big trend at November's Comdex tradeshow in Las Vegas. Sharp had a whole wall of skinny TVs that lookedlike the monitor half of a notebook computer. And these screens weresmart - they could split in half to handle two different videostreams.

Samsung Electronics, which owns a stake in Irvine-based ASTResearch, also was showing off the screens of tomorrow. It had a22-inch liquid crystal display that it is now selling to companies.

And Mitsubishi, which has offices in Cypress, debuted its plasmascreen technology, which can be built in large sizes because it's notas difficult or expensive to manufacture as the advanced colorscreens sold today.

Smart maps and tracking devices. Global positioning systems and"smart" maps will be merged into technologies that can showtravelers, boaters and hikers their exact positions and then givedirections to where they want to go.

Ultimately, Battelle predicts, these devices will be modifiedfor use as anti-collision devices for cars and trucks.

Tracking devices already have hit the marketplace in a big way.One software company in Arizona is using Rockwell International's GPSsystem to help golfers locate their balls on a course.

And several car manufacturers are offering a GPS system inluxury automobiles to help drivers find their way.

On the map side, Thomas Bros. in Irvine is busy sellingelectronic versions of its street guides which can be searched withthe click or two of the mouse.

If the technology gets cheap enough, who knows, the localItalian restaurant might start using GPS technology and electronicmaps to deliver a hot pizza pie to your house not in 30 minutes, but15.

Battelle lists several other technologies as well.

It predicts that weight control and anti-aging products will bebig hits. And that companies will develop smart materials that candetect excessive stress. That way the materials could alert peoplewhen a bridge or office building becomes unsafe.

It also is keeping an eye on the potential for"geneticeuticals," which would be used to cure or mitigate variousdiseases, and home health monitors to enable doctors to track apatient's health.

No question, all of these advances are attainable. It's just amatter of time.

What gives me pause, after this little venture to 2006, isn'twhat is possible, but what we still can't do today.

A personalized computer sounds great, but today I'd settle forone that could consistently handle the basics.

Give me a PC that won't force me to know anything about a ".dll"file or an interrupt request. And rather than large TV screen thatlooks like a painting, how about a decent-size active matrix on mynotebook computer that doesn't cost as much as my car?

Now that would be progress.