Imagine standing in front of your TV and fixing your make-up. Imagine your child hugging his television to sleep. Imagine carrying your TV with you to the porch so you don’t miss the final over of that all-crucial match. Imagine catching the latest news or your favourite soap while sitting in a car backseat or imagine watching your favourite cookery show on your wristwatch.

Welcome to the future of television. It’s still the future for most Indians because many of these products aren’t on sale in the country but it’s only a matter of time before we have screens in every direction we turn.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what programme is that on today? With Philips latest MiraVision TV, it’s a question you may well ask. For this new innovative television doubles as a mirror. The TV has a LCD ? liquid crystal display ? screen which when switched off is reflective.

The Mirror TV in essence is an LCD display integrated into a mirror, which means that you could surf TV channels while brushing your teeth, styling your hair or simply admiring your appearance.

How does it work, to ensure that when the TV part of the mirror is switched off you get a good reflection, the LCD part of the mirror has been coated with a special film which allows almost all light through for the mirror, or none at all for watching TV. Of course at approximately Rs 1.45 lakh you might want to buy the TV and mirror separately.

If you aren’t keen on mirrors, how about a television that looks like a baseball? Or how about a television for your child that fits into the tummy of a cuddly teddy bear? Hannspree, a Taiwanese ‘lifestyle television’ company has recently launched its groundbreaking designs in the US.

Car televisions are already here in India. Soon there will be TV screens of all shapes and sizes in almost any direction we turn

What gives the Hannspree its USP is that their styles are customised to fit lifestyles. So your child can go for a fire truck TV complete with a little fireman remote control. Meanwhile you can opt for a TV shaped like a cello or even a sunflower if that’s what takes your fancy.

Hannspree has three lines. It has the ‘Sports’, which offers televisions for couch potatoes who can fulfil their dreams about being more active by watching a TV shaped like a basketball. There’s the ‘Style’ line that features designs related to musical arts and flowers. And then there’s the ‘Fantasy’ range which offers your kids playful varieties like Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes inspired TVs. Of course, you have to pay a price to get the right look. The TVs cost between Rs 36,000 and Rs 1.12 lakh.

And if you belong to the breed of people who can’t bear to be parted from their television for a minute, then consider Sharp’s 15-inch wireless television. You can carry it with you anywhere ? to the kitchen, the bathroom or the garden. This LCD flat-screen television can operate up to 50 feet from its base. It has a transmitter like any other wireless device that sends signals to the TV. The transmitter box is where you would connect your satellite or cable inputs which are then transmitted to the TV. It comes with a rechargeable three-hour lithium-ion battery. So next time your favourite movie is playing and you want a change of scene, just carry your TV to the garden. Watching TV will be a whole new experience. Price: Rs 1.04 lakh.

There’s good news for those who would love a wireless TV but don’t want to schlep one home from abroad. LG Electronics says it will soon launch a wireless 15-inch LCD TV in India. Says Prasanna Raghavan, product group head ? NDP’s, LG Electronics, “We’ve developed a 15-inch LCD wireless TV which enables free movement as it doesn’t need any power cords and at the same time doesn’t require any cable connections.” LG still has not announced the price of the new product.

And for those couples who squabble over which channel to watch, here’s a peacemaker. Sharp is planning to launch a liquid-crystal display that shows two images to people watching from the left and the right. What’s more, the screen can also be used as a computer monitor. So while one person browses the Web, another can watch television. Or both can watch two programmes simultaneously.

Unfortunately this invention has a few catches. People sitting directly in front will see both channels that are being watched. So each person has to sit on different sides to make sure they are watching the right channel. And at least one of them will have to wear headphones.

Move to an entirely different screen ? the personal computer. Today, both the computer and TV are necessities. So how about a computer monitor that doubles up as a TV? Dell has launched a 19- inch LCD/TV monitor which integrates a traditional flat panel monitor and a television tuner into one device. What’s more, it provides full picture-in-picture capabilities, so you can work on your PC and watch TV at the same time. Price ? a mere snip at Rs 56,000.

For those who really can’t bear to be parted from the idiot box, there is the wristwatch TV which looks as if it has been borrowed from the set of The Jetsons. You may have to squint to see it but it could be good for unmissable onscreen moments. For about Rs 16,000, you can buy yourself a wristwatch TV. These are widely available in the US and electronic havens such as Hong Kong or Singapore.

The watch comes with a specially designed micro tuner and a headphone antenna which connects to the television for reception. The watch can give one hour of viewing on a full charge. Or you can plug into a car power port for unlimited viewing.

So okay, a wristwatch may be a bit too small for viewing TV, especially for those who now need specs. How about a 2.3-inch handheld portable TV which you can also fit in your car. Handheld portable TVs are easily available in India and screen sizes vary between 3 inches and 8 inches. Depending upon the size, brand and where you are buying it from, a handheld TV can cost anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000.

At another level, there’s TiVo which could revolutionise TV watching ? but which hasn’t come to India yet. This technology, of which great things are expected, allows you to pause, rewind, slow-mo live TV besides offering features such as a search engine to help you find the shows you want.

Basically you buy a TiVo box which looks like a set top box and then activate the TiVo service. TiVo automatically finds and digitally records up to 140 hours of programming you want ? your favourite show, every Amitabh Bachchan movie playing on TV, cricket finals, whatever you choose ? without videotape.You can also search for a show or a movie by title, actor, director, category even keyword. Supposing you key in Amitabh, if a Amitabh Bachchan movie is playing on any of the channels, it will get recorded even while your TV is switched off.

However, what you can enjoy in India are Plasma TVs. In Plasma displays the TV screens are made perfectly flat and very thin with zero curvature. This eliminates glare, that is, reflection on the TV screen from room lighting, giving perfect focus and image uniformity without any image distortion. LG, Samsung and Sony all sell Plasma TVs in India. Though initially they were very expensive, their prices have fallen substantially over the past one year. For instance, the prices of LG’s 42-inch Plasma TV have fallen by 30 per cent to 35 per cent. Consequently sales have also gone up. Says Raghavan, “We have had approximately 180 per cent growth in the sales of Plasma TVs in the past one year.”

However, if you feel the television, irrespective of its aesthetic appeal or technological advances will remain an idiot box, this gadget is just for you. Called TV-B-Gone, it’s a remote control that can switch off any TV. All you need to do is press the button and keep pointing it at the TV from a distance of 20 feet to 50 feet until it turns off (which may take up to 69 seconds). This remote can switch off nearly any TV and is small enough to be carried on your key chain. So next time you visit a restaurant with friends and they decide to pay more attention to the TV than to you, just switch it off. They will be astounded ? as will the restaurant management. The price for peace and quiet? A mere Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,450.

Illustration by Suman Choudhury
Photograph of car TV by Rupinder Sharma