All in One Microwave, TV, PC

What in the world is the MicroWeb? The newest kitchen appliance. This one sounds like it comes from the pages of Believe It or Not, but at NCR's Knowledge Lab in London, they already have a working prototype. Director Stephen Emmott says the MicroWeb is a microwave oven, that is also a TV and a voice activated computer that can surf the web....

"This is how you might imagine it working. You might put your pizza or your ready to cook dinner in the oven, literally touch the screen on the front and you can go straight to any TV channel you like or if there's nothing on TV you can just say...banking... or say ...shopping... and the MicroWeb goes either to your favorite online shopping web site or to your bank."

Emmott says it isn't a joke. These integrated appliances are the future. The prototype is a microwave with a Pentium II and a 56K modem. There's also a bar code scanner to keep track of your food...

"Yeah, you can scan your food into the microwave using a bar code scanner. And the purpose of that primarily is that the microwave will actually keep a shopping list for you so that it knows what food you've consumed."

Emmott expects the new machines to be on the market in two to five years selling for five to seven hundred dollars.