I have always been a sci-fi buff. I love it. Seen all the episodes of the original Star Trek at least 10 times. All of the Star Wars movies and anything else I could get my hands on. I also enjoy pondering what things will be like in the future. Especially the office of the future.

Recently the Kiplinger online version had a story about the “The Office of the Future.” And thanks to Build a Solo Practice, LLC for the heads up on this one.

Here is what they saw as the office of the future:

Electronic wallpaper covers the walls. When you’re not using it to show charts, graphs and other business presentations, it will be easy to switch to between pictures of the kids or some other pleasing images. Office chairs will have built-in sensors to detect your stress level. Depending on the result, the chair can then gently suggest a brief nap or exercises to help decompress.

The “office computer” is just a wide, high-definition laptop monitor with a wireless connection to a central server. If a keyboard is needed, the monitor can project one on the desk or a soft pad for virtual typing. But, more often than not, you’ll typically bark out voice commands to the machine. Say “Display the Perkins account,” and the computer will oblige with a slew of information about the client: Financial numbers, past orders, a video of a recent meeting, information the client has posted on the Internet recently and more.

So, what will the home office of the future look like? If we consider for a moment, those of us who work out of an office at home, are for the most part at the leading edge of technology. The Home Office Warrior has to take advantage of such technology to compete with those businesses that operate from a more traditional location. Usually we don’t have onsite employee to provide support. And we certainly don’t have an onsite IT department to provide support.

We have to use technology. We use it to collaborative with our virtual assistants and with other home office warriors on projects and businesses. Computers are changing so fast right in front of us, we can hardly keep up. Large touch screen computers are here. Maybe not priced so we can all afford them. But at one time a small TI calculator cost 100 times more than it cost now. We will see large touchscreen computers in the very near future. I also firmly believe video chat and conferences will become more and more common in the workplace. And what a great tool for the home office warrior to use. We could be using such technology now. But, in my own experience, few do.

Voice recognition virtual typing will become common place as companies improve on that technology too. No longer will we have to type anything. We will just say it and it will appear on the screen. I know there is voice recognition software now. However, it is has been my experience that it is lousy.

The home office of the future will do nothing but increase the number of people who will be able to work at home. The distance between the more traditional office and the home office will narrow because technology will enable the distance to be zero. Technology and the Internet will be key in this process.

So, what will the home office of the future look like. Post your comments and ideas here. I would love to have some specifics on what you all are thinking.