The Origin of Zanadu The Home of the Future
Remember the Jetsons? That Saturday morning cartoon family of the 21 st century, the ones with the high tech house filled
with fancy gadgets. They were the alter-egos of the Flintstones. Mr. Jetson commuted to work in his flying car. Mrs. Jetson
kept a carefully coiffed wig handy in case someone called her early in the morning on the picturephone. Robots did all the
housework.
Well, don't hold your breath. Flying Fords and home picturephones seem to be around the same corner as prosperity. But
equally exciting high-tech products are on the way, thanks to an invention the Jetsons never heard of: microprocessor chips.
These tiny computers, etched on specks of silicon, are the heart of today's home and personal microcomputers. You could
stack hundreds of them on a cornflake.
But although home computers are the glamour children of the microchip revolution, chips are turning up in a wide range of
consumer electronic products as well: microwave ovens, tape decks, stereo receivers, turntables, video tape recorders, clock
radios, cameras. Usually the "intelligence" added to these "smart appliances" comes in the form of relatively simple timers,
sensors, or counters. However, research and development planners, engineers, and futurists foresee much greater
possibilities.
Living In Xanadu
Architect Roy Mason is building his vision of the future out of plastic foam in Orlando, florida. Dubbed "Xanadu," it's a
model home for the 1990s and beyond. Xanadu consists of domed pods built by spraying polyurethane foam onto removable
molds. The quick-setting polyurethane hardens in a couple of days, forming perfect seals around the doors and windows
which are set directly into the foam. The resulting structure is said to be so well insulated that it requires only a quarter of the
energy for heating and cooling as a similar-sized conventional house. It also reduces construction time for the basic shell to
only three days, and is claimed to be suitable for any type of climate.
But Xanadu's really revolutionary features will be tucked away inside the foam shell. It is being crammed with every
electronic and computerized gadget imaginable. The point is not necessarily to show what will happen to homes in the near
future, but what could happen. Xanadu will cost about $300,000, even though much of the equipment is being donated for
promotional purposes. When completed late this year, Xanadu will open as a tourist attraction for people visiting nearby
Disneyworld and Epcot Center .
Architect Mason believes Xanadu will alter the way we now tend to think of houses -as little more than inanimate, passive
shelters against the elements. "No one's really looked at the house as a total organic system," says Mason, who is also the
architecture editor of The Futurist magazine. "The house can have intelligence and each room can have intelligence."
Take Xanadu's kitchen, for example. It's equipped with a "family dietitian" consisting of four microcomputers. It plans well-
balanced meals for family members depepding on their height, weight, sex, age, and levels of activity. If you come home
from a busy day and inform the computer-dietitian that you skipped lunch and nibbled on a candy bar instead, it calculates
supper based on the nutrients you missed. An “auto-chef” can move food from the refrigerator to the microwave oven to the
dining table, and the computers keep track of the grocery inventory so you know what to replace. The auto-chef can even
regulate the ambience of the dining room to match your meals, adjusting the lighting and background music to complement
your Mexican dinner, for instance.
Some of that food is grown by the house itself. Xanadu has a built-in greenhouse. Naturally, a microcomputer monitors the
watering of plants, artificial sunlight, ventilation, humidity, soil content, and the shutters and awnings.
The groceries you can't grow can be bought by tele-shopping at the household work station. The catalog is on a videodisc
system hooked into the microcomputer, and the transaction is handled with the help of tele-banking. The work station
computer also maintains a household calendar, records, and home bookkeeping.
Xanadu incorporates the latest "electronic cottage" concepts to reduce or eliminate daily commuting to and from work. A
study/office shows how business could be conducted from the home, with electronic mail, access to stock and commodities
trading, and news services.
Xanadu's other features include " Auto Oasis," a computer-controlled party room; a health spa, where a computer suggests
exercises based on your physical characteristics and diet; a family learning center with four talking microcomputers that run
educational software and even an interactive psychoanalysis program; illusionary "windows" that display computer-generated
images, just in case you get tired of staring at the laundry on the Joneses clothesline; a "Sensorium" with hologram projection
and a computer-controlled bio-feedback device which regulates background music and abstract patterns on the walls in tune
with your moods; and an electronic art gallery with ever changing, laser-projected images.
With all this advanced electronics, you're probably wondering at this point about Xanadu's horrendous electric bills. Mason
has an answer for that, too. A central microcomputer monitors all energy consumption and eventually will be programmable
as a watchdog. "You could program the house, 'I'm only going to spend $300 this month for utilities and that's that.' So you'd
program that on the keyboard and the house would only use $300 worth of utilities. Of course, you might not get your
laundry done for a few days, but that's your decision."
The central computer is part of the family media room, which also includes video games (of course), two-way cable TV, and
a large-screen video projection system. But the central computer is the heart of the house, and comprises what Mason refers
to as the "electronic hearth."
The Electronic Hearth
"The home of the future will be more like the home of the past than the home of the present," says Mason. "It used to be that
the whole family gathered around the hearth for entertainment activities, meals, and so on. The home of the future will
feature what I call an 'electronic hearth,' a home computer that is the center of the family's activities - entertainment,
bookkeeping, meal-planning."
Although families today gather around TV sets, that form of entertainment is passive, with little or no interaction between the
family members and the TV set or with each other. A home computer, on the other hand, allows interactive entertainment.
Mason says the difference has yet to be fully appreciated.
"My feeling is that the home computer has never really been a home computer, it's been a personal computer. We haven't
really seen home computers being used as home computers, as a house computer. [At Xanadu] we're using the home
computer as a true house computer."
TomorrowHouse Via Apple
Surprisingly, most of the microchip devices in the Xanadu house are already available off-the-shelf items. Xanadu simply
brings them all together in one place with little regard for expense. To demonstrate that the concepts are practical, Mason is
planning a spin-off model of Xanadu, a less elaborate version that is relatively affordable. It, too, will be made of polyurethane
foam, but will have less hardware.
"I don't want people walking through this house [Xanadu] and saying, 'Well, this is great, but who could afford it?' I want a
version that is affordable," says Mason.
This version would have about 2,000 square feet- Xanadu has 5,000- and would cost around $80,000, Mason hopes. "We'll
probably have extras like you have when you buy a car -you can make the house as smart as you want. It's already a pretty
smart house."
All the energy and security alarm monitoring at Xanadu will be handled by a commercially available program called
TomorrowHouse, marketed since mid-summer by Compu-Home Systems, Inc. of Denver, Colorado. TomorrowHouse is a
dramatic demonstration of the future possibilities for micro-computer-controlled homes. Running on an Apple II, it
supervises the central heating and air-conditioning, monitors temperatures outdoors and in every room, and performs dozens
of other tasks.
"For example, if you go off skiing for a weekend, which we do all the time here in Colorado, you can program your hot tub
to heat up to 102 degrees at 7 o'clock on Sunday night to be ready when you get home," says designer Russ Coffman, vice
president of Compu-Homes.
TomorrowHouse also enables the computer to talk. This adds some interesting features. "If anyone breaks into your house,
the security system detects it and the computer turns on all the lights and, starts talking," explains Coffman. The idea is to
frighten the burglar into thinking the house is occupied. To that end, you might imagine that the computer says something
Jike, "Whoever's out there, watch out for the cobra!" or "Honey, pass me the hand grenades!", but Coffman kept it simple:
"It just says, 'Intruder alert at 7:03' or whatever time it is, just enough talking to make the intruder think that somebody is
home."
For the future, Coffman wants to make it possible to monitor and reprogram the house from any touch-tone telephone. When
you're on vacation, you could phone the computer and check if any break-ins have been detected, or if the freezer is still
working. As microchip technology advances, other features will be added, too.
"Voice recognition we haven't started working on yet, but we're keeping our eyes on it," he says. "We eventually want to fix
it so you can just holler at the computer and get it to do things."
would learn those conditions, such as how much it should be running. If you left your door open, the furnace would know it
was running more than normal and would alert you to that fact. Or if the filter were clogged and the airflow were reduced,
the furnace would notice that it was getting less air than usual and would tell you."
This would be a better approach than programming a single home computer to handle everything, Lane believes. A more
important contribution of today's home computers, he says, might be simply acclimating consumers to the idea of computers
in the home. "I certainly think the personal computer has made the most dramatic impact at this time As this set of people
gets more familiar with computers and buys more personal computers, maybe we'll see a desire to involve computing devices
in more broad applications."
with fancy gadgets. They were the alter-egos of the Flintstones. Mr. Jetson commuted to work in his flying car. Mrs. Jetson
kept a carefully coiffed wig handy in case someone called her early in the morning on the picturephone. Robots did all the
housework.
Well, don't hold your breath. Flying Fords and home picturephones seem to be around the same corner as prosperity. But
equally exciting high-tech products are on the way, thanks to an invention the Jetsons never heard of: microprocessor chips.
These tiny computers, etched on specks of silicon, are the heart of today's home and personal microcomputers. You could
stack hundreds of them on a cornflake.
But although home computers are the glamour children of the microchip revolution, chips are turning up in a wide range of
consumer electronic products as well: microwave ovens, tape decks, stereo receivers, turntables, video tape recorders, clock
radios, cameras. Usually the "intelligence" added to these "smart appliances" comes in the form of relatively simple timers,
sensors, or counters. However, research and development planners, engineers, and futurists foresee much greater
possibilities.
Living In Xanadu
Architect Roy Mason is building his vision of the future out of plastic foam in Orlando, florida. Dubbed "Xanadu," it's a
model home for the 1990s and beyond. Xanadu consists of domed pods built by spraying polyurethane foam onto removable
molds. The quick-setting polyurethane hardens in a couple of days, forming perfect seals around the doors and windows
which are set directly into the foam. The resulting structure is said to be so well insulated that it requires only a quarter of the
energy for heating and cooling as a similar-sized conventional house. It also reduces construction time for the basic shell to
only three days, and is claimed to be suitable for any type of climate.
But Xanadu's really revolutionary features will be tucked away inside the foam shell. It is being crammed with every
electronic and computerized gadget imaginable. The point is not necessarily to show what will happen to homes in the near
future, but what could happen. Xanadu will cost about $300,000, even though much of the equipment is being donated for
promotional purposes. When completed late this year, Xanadu will open as a tourist attraction for people visiting nearby
Disneyworld and Epcot Center .
Architect Mason believes Xanadu will alter the way we now tend to think of houses -as little more than inanimate, passive
shelters against the elements. "No one's really looked at the house as a total organic system," says Mason, who is also the
architecture editor of The Futurist magazine. "The house can have intelligence and each room can have intelligence."
Take Xanadu's kitchen, for example. It's equipped with a "family dietitian" consisting of four microcomputers. It plans well-
balanced meals for family members depepding on their height, weight, sex, age, and levels of activity. If you come home
from a busy day and inform the computer-dietitian that you skipped lunch and nibbled on a candy bar instead, it calculates
supper based on the nutrients you missed. An “auto-chef” can move food from the refrigerator to the microwave oven to the
dining table, and the computers keep track of the grocery inventory so you know what to replace. The auto-chef can even
regulate the ambience of the dining room to match your meals, adjusting the lighting and background music to complement
your Mexican dinner, for instance.
Some of that food is grown by the house itself. Xanadu has a built-in greenhouse. Naturally, a microcomputer monitors the
watering of plants, artificial sunlight, ventilation, humidity, soil content, and the shutters and awnings.
The groceries you can't grow can be bought by tele-shopping at the household work station. The catalog is on a videodisc
system hooked into the microcomputer, and the transaction is handled with the help of tele-banking. The work station
computer also maintains a household calendar, records, and home bookkeeping.
Xanadu incorporates the latest "electronic cottage" concepts to reduce or eliminate daily commuting to and from work. A
study/office shows how business could be conducted from the home, with electronic mail, access to stock and commodities
trading, and news services.
Xanadu's other features include " Auto Oasis," a computer-controlled party room; a health spa, where a computer suggests
exercises based on your physical characteristics and diet; a family learning center with four talking microcomputers that run
educational software and even an interactive psychoanalysis program; illusionary "windows" that display computer-generated
images, just in case you get tired of staring at the laundry on the Joneses clothesline; a "Sensorium" with hologram projection
and a computer-controlled bio-feedback device which regulates background music and abstract patterns on the walls in tune
with your moods; and an electronic art gallery with ever changing, laser-projected images.
With all this advanced electronics, you're probably wondering at this point about Xanadu's horrendous electric bills. Mason
has an answer for that, too. A central microcomputer monitors all energy consumption and eventually will be programmable
as a watchdog. "You could program the house, 'I'm only going to spend $300 this month for utilities and that's that.' So you'd
program that on the keyboard and the house would only use $300 worth of utilities. Of course, you might not get your
laundry done for a few days, but that's your decision."
The central computer is part of the family media room, which also includes video games (of course), two-way cable TV, and
a large-screen video projection system. But the central computer is the heart of the house, and comprises what Mason refers
to as the "electronic hearth."
The Electronic Hearth
"The home of the future will be more like the home of the past than the home of the present," says Mason. "It used to be that
the whole family gathered around the hearth for entertainment activities, meals, and so on. The home of the future will
feature what I call an 'electronic hearth,' a home computer that is the center of the family's activities - entertainment,
bookkeeping, meal-planning."
Although families today gather around TV sets, that form of entertainment is passive, with little or no interaction between the
family members and the TV set or with each other. A home computer, on the other hand, allows interactive entertainment.
Mason says the difference has yet to be fully appreciated.
"My feeling is that the home computer has never really been a home computer, it's been a personal computer. We haven't
really seen home computers being used as home computers, as a house computer. [At Xanadu] we're using the home
computer as a true house computer."
TomorrowHouse Via Apple
Surprisingly, most of the microchip devices in the Xanadu house are already available off-the-shelf items. Xanadu simply
brings them all together in one place with little regard for expense. To demonstrate that the concepts are practical, Mason is
planning a spin-off model of Xanadu, a less elaborate version that is relatively affordable. It, too, will be made of polyurethane
foam, but will have less hardware.
"I don't want people walking through this house [Xanadu] and saying, 'Well, this is great, but who could afford it?' I want a
version that is affordable," says Mason.
This version would have about 2,000 square feet- Xanadu has 5,000- and would cost around $80,000, Mason hopes. "We'll
probably have extras like you have when you buy a car -you can make the house as smart as you want. It's already a pretty
smart house."
All the energy and security alarm monitoring at Xanadu will be handled by a commercially available program called
TomorrowHouse, marketed since mid-summer by Compu-Home Systems, Inc. of Denver, Colorado. TomorrowHouse is a
dramatic demonstration of the future possibilities for micro-computer-controlled homes. Running on an Apple II, it
supervises the central heating and air-conditioning, monitors temperatures outdoors and in every room, and performs dozens
of other tasks.
"For example, if you go off skiing for a weekend, which we do all the time here in Colorado, you can program your hot tub
to heat up to 102 degrees at 7 o'clock on Sunday night to be ready when you get home," says designer Russ Coffman, vice
president of Compu-Homes.
TomorrowHouse also enables the computer to talk. This adds some interesting features. "If anyone breaks into your house,
the security system detects it and the computer turns on all the lights and, starts talking," explains Coffman. The idea is to
frighten the burglar into thinking the house is occupied. To that end, you might imagine that the computer says something
Jike, "Whoever's out there, watch out for the cobra!" or "Honey, pass me the hand grenades!", but Coffman kept it simple:
"It just says, 'Intruder alert at 7:03' or whatever time it is, just enough talking to make the intruder think that somebody is
home."
For the future, Coffman wants to make it possible to monitor and reprogram the house from any touch-tone telephone. When
you're on vacation, you could phone the computer and check if any break-ins have been detected, or if the freezer is still
working. As microchip technology advances, other features will be added, too.
"Voice recognition we haven't started working on yet, but we're keeping our eyes on it," he says. "We eventually want to fix
it so you can just holler at the computer and get it to do things."
would learn those conditions, such as how much it should be running. If you left your door open, the furnace would know it
was running more than normal and would alert you to that fact. Or if the filter were clogged and the airflow were reduced,
the furnace would notice that it was getting less air than usual and would tell you."
This would be a better approach than programming a single home computer to handle everything, Lane believes. A more
important contribution of today's home computers, he says, might be simply acclimating consumers to the idea of computers
in the home. "I certainly think the personal computer has made the most dramatic impact at this time As this set of people
gets more familiar with computers and buys more personal computers, maybe we'll see a desire to involve computing devices
in more broad applications."
magazine Compute in 1982. There Roy Mason was
being interviewed about Computers in the home and
his project called Zanadu in Kissimmee Florida.
Xanadu was a white-domed home of the future,
with franchises in Kissimmee, Florida, Wisconsin
Dells, Wisconsin, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The
Xanadu's promoted an environmentally sensitive
sci-fi lifestyle, offering a peek at Tomorrow's
do-it-all domiciles.
Xanadu championed a novel method of
home-building -- wet polyurethane foam sprayed
over gigantic balloons to form the frame of this
low-cost, energy-efficient structure.
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