Welcome to the home of the future -- at least the Microsoft Corp. version.
It has a front door that unlocks using biometrics instead of keys and a kitchen that reads recipes aloud, but no whiz-bang gadgetry in the bathroom.
In fact there's no bathroom at all. At least not yet.
Featuring technologies that are five to eight years away from being offered to the public, the prototype "Microsoft Home" at the company's Redmond, Washington, campus allows researchers to test concepts surrounding how people will use technology in their everyday lives in the future.
The home doesn't have a bathroom because it is housed in Microsoft's Executive Briefing Center, which is a public facility. Its restroom would have to be built according to industrial building standards, Jonathan Cluts, director of consumer prototyping and strategy at Microsoft, said in a recent interview.
"We didn't build a real (bathroom) because it wouldn't be like the one you would have in your home," he said.
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