BBC News Online: Sci/Tech

Teleport is dream gadget

Self-cleaning kitchens, electronic assistants and maintenance-free cars are among the top items in the technology wish-list for 2009.

But what people would really like is some new Star Trek-style technology that would enable them to be "teleported" instantanously anywhere in the world.

And according to the survey, The British And Technology, conducted by electronics company Motorola, people also want to be able to programme their dreams to travel, learn and cure bad habits while asleep.

Others hope technology will enable them to complete a two-hour physical workout in just 20 minutes.

More realistically, the idea of having an electronic personal digital assistant was popular.

Ideally, men would like this to resemble TV presenter Carol Vorderman, followed by colleague Philippa Forrester and actress Pamela Anderson. The top choices for women were actors Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery, and then Carol Vorderman again.

The survey found calorie-free food, voice-activated anything and wall-sized television screens were also in demand.

The TVs would be used for shopping and banking as well as watching programmes, with men quite liking the idea of using it for virtual-reality sports.

Cars would preferably be solar-powered and certainly never break down.

The survey also found some interesting facts about Internet use.

Use of the Internet at home has rocketed by 44% in the last year.

More people are using the Net for banking - up to 9% this year from 4% last year.

And more people, especially men, are using the Net for shopping although the most popular use of the Internet remains searching for information.

But the survey found that we are not as hi-tech as we think we are.

A quarter of those surveyed did not know the difference between digital TV and analogue TV.

And despite all the changes, the most commonly used home technology remains ... teletext.

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