Talking fridges and intelligent boilers could become standard household appliances as the UK Government announces a £40m spend on new technologies.
The newly created Virtual Interdisciplinary Research Centre (vIRC) will bring together firms such as IBM, Dyson and Hotpoint with a selection of universities, including Cambridge and Surrey, to work on a series of cutting edge projects.
The list of participants is huge and it is hoped the group can finally make the long-talked about networked home a reality.
But critics say the money could be better spent elsewhere, such as on improving access to high-speed internet links.