But CISRA, Canon's Australian research and development company, has devised a elegant solution: make the information appliance a PC peripheral.

CISRA's prototypes of the concept, codenamed Rama, are simple LCD touch-screen units placed in the kitchen or where the family message pad sits, and connected to a home PC via USB. Software running on the home PC provides household-convenience applications such as calendars, to-do lists, shopping lists, web browsers, rosters and such like, displayed on the touch-screen unit. The applications use a custom graphical interface designed for brief casual interaction on the touch screen, rather than the Windows desk-oriented keyboard and mouse arrangement.

The result is a home information appliance with all the power of a home PC, access to stored data such as address books and e-mail, and use of peripherals such as printers and CD-ROM drives, in the right place in the home but at a greatly reduced cost. CISRA recognised that ultra-thin low cost PC peripherals have always succeeded in the home against smart semi-autonomous devices. Compare office laser printers versus home BubbleJet printers for example. For household workloads, thin peripherals offer greater functionality for less cost.

The system uses a specially designed graphics system to give a rich full colour animated interface on the remote touch screen, while on the PC side a scripting interface allows applications to be developed quickly and easily by third parties. Because most resources are provided by the home PC, PC upgrades will enhance the capabilities of the home appliance at the same time. For example, when home control networks start appearing, the PC is the first device they will connect to, and for Rama it will just be a software upgrade to work with them.

The RAMA concept is about providing the sort of short-interaction household data functions that a PC has the power to do-except the PC is in the wrong location with the wrong interface. Rama solves this problem by providing a quick, convenient, constantly available user interface, with the power of the home PC behind it.