In the not too-distant-future don’t be suprised to find yourself sitting on your favourite chair in the house that arches over your head to reveal a Hi-Definition touch screen where you’ll be downloading the film you wanted to hire for the night and chatting to your buddies on Twitter as you all watch live streaming of the game that is being played just now. The door bell sounds and you flick the arm rest to reveal a small video monitor that shows the pizza delivery guy outside your door that you ordered and paid for online just 20 minutes ago. You pause the chair’s massage mode and shout the kids downstairs for dinner.

Yep, modern furniture of the future is going to play a large part in our lives. And furniture that looks good and has smart technology embedded within is going to be in great demand. Where did I get my crystal ball from, you may ask? We’ll let’s look back in time to see how the future is shaping up.

Remember Captain Kirk and crew from the 60’s Star Trek show? How could you not? Doors that opened for you, little mobile communication devices, chairs that bore a striking resemblance to the La-Z-Boy range. Waterbeds also came from Sci-Fi fiction and wall mounted flat screens Plasmas were first written about in 1953 by Ray Bradbury in the book, ‘Fahrenheit 451′. And let’s not even get started with George Orwell’s 1984, Comeye, allows you to speak with someone on a screen wirelessly, that is too spooky to be true.

So, next time your looking at the latest movie release or reading a new sci-fi novel, pay close attention to what pieces of future furniture their showing you or writing about, as it just might be a visionary glimpse of things yet to come. Which is kind of worrying in a way, because I just watched Wall-E, Disney’s latest animation release and found the floating chairs that carried the fat humans everywhere a little too discomforting.