Technofile: To some people the idea of a gadget-filled home would be a nightmare. To others it would be heaven. But to truly find out the answer, a British family is spending six months in a high-tech home in a Big Brother-style experiment.
Dubbed the Projectlife house, the luxury dwelling in Sheffield looks normal from the outside but, inside, contains a wealth of modern technology.
The Parnell family has been selected for the University of Nottingham study, which is being conducted with Leicester University and construction firm David Wilson Homes. Dad Nick, wife Sue and teenage daughters Lucy and Hazel were officially handed the keys last Wednesday.
Radio tags worn by the family will monitor which rooms they use and track how they use the ultra-modern conveniences, which range from self-cleaning windows to a blow-up dummy that irons shirts.
The five-bedroom house has seven TVs and five bathrooms, a laundry chute to take dirty clothes to the cellar, heated floors and phones that double as intercoms.
Despite this excess of technology that would be alien to most modern homes, Nick Parnell says the aim of the project is to find out "how modern families are living in houses".
Further features include a sunken bath with a wall-mounted TV screen and DVD player, an outdoor hot-tub and a bedroom with a "landing strip" of lights that will guide guests to the bathroom at night.
Other aspects of the house are simple rather than technological, such as separate waste bins for paper, compost, plastic, tins and glass.
The self-cleaning windows are coated with a special chemical which holds dirt in a layer. When it rains, the layer is washed off as well, taking the dirt with it.
Elsewhere, there are clear glass panels embedded in the floors to maximise natural light. There are three taps in the kitchen sink - for hot, cold and filtered drinking water. The dishwasher is silent.
Fans will remove moisture from the house while electromagnetic sliding doors will be able to isolate each floor in case of fire.
Something which you can already buy will be a digital picture frame which rotates favourite family photos.
Ultimately, the project hopes to answer questions such as whether a separate diningroom is necessary in this day and age, or whether children want places to do their homework near the rest of the family.
Researchers also want to definitively find out who spends the most time in the bathroom and who does the laundry.
However, it would probably be fair to say that many of these answers are already available from the average mum. And a casual glance at property classifieds will show that "kitchen/diner" is a coveted phrase, oft-wielded by estate agents.
