TECHNOLOGY - April 25, 1995

In the Chips: Just as electric motors are commonplace in household appliances, some designers now expect computer chips will spread throughout homes, offices and shops as new communications and networking systems are taken for granted.

Hotels were the first to advertise advanced hookups in their rooms for business travelers. Now Spaghettini, a Seal Beach restaurant, has also begun touting a banquet room wired with fax machines and lines that can be used to connect portable computers to remote offices.

Industry executives are also studying similar markets for homes, such as video telephones and “smart” appliances that learn when to turn themselves on and off based on an owner’s past use.

To explore these possibilities, the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County is sponsoring a dinner meeting Monday featuring Greg Riker, director of a Microsoft Corp.’s consumer technology project. Riker will discuss how rooms and structures can also learn to adapt if they are built with many small computers, and how computers embedded in watches, belts and clothing can allow users to interact with their dwellings.

Tickets for the dinner, at $45 each for those who are not members of the trade group, can be reserved by calling (714) 553-9500 before Friday.