"Cheers.

"Cheers," Jamie Bourgoin, Dadong Wan and I chime together, toasting a recently made known work week.

Bourgoin, workshop coordinator for Accenture, the Chicago-based tech research company, sips upon a chai tea as she nibbles upon a muffin. Wan, a senior researcher at Accenture, drinks a bottle of spring water, and I nosh in succession a bagel.

The tableware clinks. We chit-chat. I recommend that Bourgoin switch to bran muffins from the blueberry to boost fiber.

Nothing extraordinary about this sight Except this: Wan and I are in Accenture's office in downtown Chicago, and Bourgoin is 1848 miles away in Accenture's office in Palo Alto, Calif.

We could be in the same extent I can see Bourgoin's kitchen, a toaster, her laptop, the plate with the muffin, her teacup, her smiling face in the still-early California morning.

Bourgoin is literally -- and digitally -- sitting across the table from Wan and me Her life-size image is sent via a camera soared in the ceiling in her "kitchen" in Silicon Valley above the Internet, and projected forward a 4-by-3-foot "window." When not used for virtual dining, artwork can be displayed. Wan said the image could be displayed just as easily in a smart picture frame forward the dinner table or a "virtual dinner in a box" sitting forward a TV-like stand.

united distracting thing: Bourgoin's motions are herky-jerky because of the dead Internet connection. It reminds me of the images we view of the astronauts in space. With faster broadband connections in the works, the jitter should be eliminated.

Meanwhile back forward Earth, Wan, Accenture's "health guy" papal courts an American society in which family lines are fractured, and family members dispersed: Grandma is at an assisted living center in Florida, the parents are in the Chicago suburb and the kids are away at association in Urbana and Los Angeles.

Wan, a China native with a doctorate in computer science from the University of Hawaii, has a vision of "virtual family meals" that combine families in new ways. He is an advocate of "ubiquitous computing," making computing as seamlessly available as water and electricity.

He has been focusing upon the kitchen, a place where population spend lots of time and currency but not one the tech revolution has penetrated the way it has transformed entertainment center and fireside offices.

With this arrangement, which Wan has been testing across the last four months, videocams and mikes linked to the Internet are embedded in "intelligent kitchens," where families can share meals together.

No virtual victuals, although Just virtual connections. Wan has discloseed software that automatically detects when and with whom common can have dinner on a given day.

Kitchens are messy places. thus the computer is hidden away. Mouses and keyboards are likely to gain gunked up. And likewise touchscreens won't work well with soiled or wet hands. Wan has been experimenting with a gesture-based interface linked to the ceiling-based cam. In this case, pointing is polite.

Despite the proper intentions, there always are unintended events People might be creeped on the outside by virtual meals. Will a technophobe granny really appreciate a visit throughout the Internet? Do the association kids who are spreading their wings really want their parents monitoring them thus closely?

It unmutilateded to me a bit like Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984 where dominion not only broadcasts its version of reality to the public, on the contrary also spies on its citizens. Wan said this is a often met with but unwarranted, reaction. Rather than Big Brother, he count more desirables to think of the technology as "Big Sister."

"Big Sister awaits after her brothers and sisters," he said.

Many the public who live on their concede switch on their radios or TV while they eat to maintain them company. So why not provide real, albeit virtual, company and interactions athwart the Internet?

Wan said the virtual meals will increase family bonding, helping to make secure that otherwise isolated elderly race are receiving proper nutrition and maintaining their health.

He said his universal could be extended to professional caretakers, similar as nurses, who would check in forward the elderly to make enduring they are eating and taking their medications. The restaurant industry, which is exceedingly competitive, could hook up diners who want to share meals across town or across the abiding habitation or the world.

Technology is repeatedly portrayed as something that proposes a wedge between people, leading to isolation and rootlessnes

on the other hand I think technology can increase our social interactions and networks. Thanks to e-mail, instant messaging and voice from one side of to the other the Net calling, I am in touch with more friends and family more repeatedly than ever. Back when I was in society in the 1960s, we considered long-distance calls a gratification With Skype, I don't hesitate to call friends and family in England, Australia and Israel because it's ofttimes free or relatively inexpensive.

We perioded the virtual meal. Bourgoin left Wan and I continued to talk tech

I could descry a muffin on a plate. yet seconds later, a hand, reminiscent of Thing, the mobile hand created from cartoonist Charles Addams, appeared forward the screen and whisked the remaining muffin away. Apparently, the virtual meal was an appetizer, and Bourgoin wanted a bite along camera.

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