Panasonic Foretells a Wall-Sized Screen at Home

One day, Panasonic tells us at CES, a gigantic electronic wall will bring the family together.

The "concept technology" is called "Life Wall," and a prototype being displayed is very cool yet very weird. The cool part: the ability to recognize family members and call up a screen that moves with you through the room, becoming bigger and smaller by the wave of a hand or adjusting itself to where you are in the room.

The weird part: decorating the virtual wall by adding faux windows, a fireplace, pictures, wallpaper, curtains. Of course, maybe this would be second nature for tomorrow's adults who are growing up decorating virtual rooms on Webkinz and BarbieGirls.com.

The actors displaying the Life Wall showed how kids could do big-as-life research via the Internet on the wall, then switch to games or TV. And parents would be able to check in on cameras in the baby's room or kids playing in the backyard. If the room is big enough and the family is in the mood for a movie night, you'll be able to watch a wall-to-wall film.

That would have to be one big room and everyone would have to sit pretty close together if the Life Wall is to "bring back family time" as Panasonic posits.