The consumer electronics show (CES) has just begun. Back in October I made the Prediction:

Within the next 5 years all “smart phones” will have voice recognition/intelligent agents built in. I should probably add that you will soon see high end voice enabled TVs, Cars, and appliances.

http://www.chatbots.org/ai_zone/viewthread/673/

At CES Samsung introduced their “Smart TV”:
(from Wired)

The South Korean manufacturer provided a preview of its coming attractions during its keynote here at CES 2012 on Monday night, and it’s clear Smart TV 2.0 will play a big role in its future. Samsung’s initiative focuses on three areas: smart interaction, smart content and smart evolution. This year’s models will include an integrated camera and microphone so your TV can “listen, see and do,” Boo-Keun Yoon, president of Samsung’s consumer electronics division, said.

http://www.samsung.com/us/smarttv/
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/01/samsung-smart-tvs-ultrabooks/

Besides the TVs, cell phones, and tablets that they introduced, they also demonstrated a WiFi washer and dryer you can control by phone. They already have a refrigerator that has a monitor.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/samsung-smarthome-wifi-washer-and-dryer-hands-on-video/

LG demonstrated ThinQ Smart Home Appliances; an oven, fridge, washer and dryer that can communicate with your cell phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCtwgxoEDIM&feature=related

Some day, your intelligent agent (chatbot), will be in charge of all your home technology.
Skynet-AI ran on a wide variety of devices in 2011, I expect more in 2012.

Mobile Devices:
IPad/IPod/IPhone
Android
Blackberry
Nokia
Windows Phone
Kindle

Game Consoles/TVs:
Playstation Portable
Playstation 3
Nintendo Wii
Google TV

PC Browsers:
Internet Explorer
Opera
Opera Mini
Safari
Chrome
Firefox
Mozilla
SeaMonkey
RockMelt
Lunascape

Operating Systems:
Windows
Macintosh
Linux
Android

Yes, I agree.
JavaScript is truly the platform to use for the client interface.

On December 20, 2011, Vlingo announced the signing of an agreement for Nuance to acquire Vlingo.
Vlingo (a voice to text technology company offering SIRI like products) has put out a couple of videos related to what I am talking about:

Vlingo Announces its Virtual Assistant for Smarter TV (1/10/2012)
http://blog.vlingo.com/

What’s next for the virtual assistant.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/_BFADQiXJWw?fs=1&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&rel=0

Momentum is building for intelligent agents.

Nuance has been around for may years and it’s technology was used in Siri. Vilingo was a small threat to Nuance, but by combining the two companies, they can go after the small appliance markets in a big way. Imagine, beside smart TVs, talking to your thermostat, refregerator, washer and drier or anything else you would normally tactically interact with.

Yes, the smart home is already here, if your willing to upgrade your appliances and electrical system to WiFi enabled.
Should be a very interesting few years ahead of us.

I can see it now:

Calling out from the bathroom - “I want some medium toast, please!”

Come out from your shave, and two nicely buttered slices of golden brown are lying on a plate, ready for consumption.

I am still waiting for Rosie the Robot to clean my house for me.

Laura Patterson - Jan 12, 2012:

I am still waiting for Rosie the Robot to clean my house for me.

‘She’ bots (Ms. Roomba, Neato, Mint) can already at least clean the floor for you…

There’s even a “wet” version of the Roomba that mops the floor, too.

http://store.irobot.com/category/index.jsp?categoryId=3334444

Dave Morton - Jan 13, 2012:

There’s even a “wet” version of the Roomba that mops the floor, too.

http://store.irobot.com/category/index.jsp?categoryId=3334444

If there was only a “dusting” robot too! (and a cooking robot) (oh, and a dog poop scooping robot)... yeah, we’re still some ways away from “Rosie”.

I think more likely there will be specialized robots than a robot that can do it all. I can see more of a crew of robots, one for the floor, one for the windows and the Chief-Boy R-Robot

Dave Morton - Jan 12, 2012:

Calling out from the bathroom - “I want some medium toast, please!”

Come out from your shave, and two nicely buttered slices of golden brown are lying on a plate, ready for consumption.

Might sound rediculious, but this is going to happen. I’d guess between 2020 and 2035 in a era I’d like to refer to as ‘RoboWorld’:
http://www.erwinvanlun.com/ww/trends/future_2035_roboworld/

Thanks for adding all this stuff Merlin! Good work!

Yeah, I believe you Erwin, and I can’t wait.  But I think more like 2035 than 2020.  Looking forward to it!

2020, is in 8 years. maybe. By 2035, most likely, yes.

Exactly what I was thinking…. seven years, 11 months, 1 week…. kind of a LOT to accomplish in that time frame.

Consider that we haven’t achieved much in 5 decades, well we have, but no huge sudden advancements.

Unless we are about to hit some sudden non-linear increase, I’d say 2035 is almost too optimistsic.

On the other hand, Mr Ray Kurzweil says The Singularity will hit in 2029 ... saying that for a $ 1000 you’ll have a PC that has way more processing power than a human brain.  He has a point, exponential increases & the law of accelerating returns…. well, I sure like his thinking, and I hope he is right (he’s been right about a lot of other things).

I don’t know though, unless we finally go beyond silicon, CPU speeds have FLAT LINED for over ten years now.  We’ve been at a cap of 3.0 Ghz for personal computers for awhile!  But, works is being done in all sorts of other approaches.

Victor Shulist - Jan 25, 2012:

On the other hand, Mr Ray Kurzweil says The Singularity will hit in 2029 ...

Kurzweil’s date is 2045.

Ah.. yes, thanks Toby.  I stand corrected.  I was thinking about the

“A $1,000 personal computer is 1,000 times more powerful than the human brain.”

prediction when I was writing that.

Good table of his predictions…..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_made_by_Ray_Kurzweil#2029

2045: The Singularity….

  $1000 buys a computer a billion times more intelligent than every human combined. This means that average and even low-end computers are vastly smarter than even highly intelligent, unenhanced humans.”

How humbling….  (*add entry in my scheduler…. become a cyborg by 2045).