You won't find this newfangled gadget in retail outlets like PC Richards or Toys R Us this Christmas, but it may be available for communicating over next-generation wireless networks in two to three years.

The kids' communicator is a cross between a ball, a radio-controlled truck and a videophone — a transparent plastic case with a red ball set inside that contains a small liquid-crystal display. By the use of a gyroscope, the screen always appears right side up, even when the ball rolls. Parents and children see each other via the screen and hear each other through wireless Internet links. A parent might bring the device into the living room where the youngster is playing and say, "Grandpa's on the phone." The parent could steer the device by remote control to roll toward the child, so she could speak to her grandfather.

Gannes said the idea for the kids' communicator came from group technologists who have young children and were trying to think of a way to personalize the videophone for them.

"For the most part, videophones and videoconferences offer a formal, stilted form of communication," Gannes said. "We wanted to see how a child would engage with a network presence of Grandpa, for instance."

The kids' communicator is part of a group of five wireless-concept devices that hardware engineers at AT&T Labs have created to stimulate the imagination of the company's OEM partners. The devices in the lab's Imagine Kit illustrate the kind of future wireless services AT&T plans to offer — and the hardware that will take advantage of them.

"We asked ourselves what devices could benefit from being networked and basically we believe that in an era of universal broadband access, there will be a networked version of every device out there," said Gannes, who is vice president of Internet applications at AT&T Labs (Menlo Park, Calif.) and leads the engineering group. "We're taking the cell phone paradigm to other devices."

AT&T is not the only company looking to kick-start a multimedia future of networked devices. At the recent TV World NY 2000 conference here, a handful of up-and-coming companies discussed diverse ways of delivering interactive entertainment to a host of wired and wireless systems. The common goal is to help conceive a new ecosystem of information appliances for multimedia content.

"We look at devices as a way of extending the value of the network," said AT&T's Gannes, whose group also builds real, functioning systems in collaboration with OEM customers. AT&T hopes the Imagine Kit — created to help AT&T Wireless (Redmond, Wash.) explain its wireless strategy — will inspire manufacturing partners to put the devices on their road maps.

In fact, AT&T Wireless wants to work with OEMs to specify multifunction consumer devices for its third- and fourth-generation wireless networks in the same way it works with cell phone manufacturers on new phone models. For instance, AT&T would partner with a consumer electronics manufacturer to make sure a device can operate on the AT&T wireless network.

The first edition of the Imagine Kit, unveiled earlier this year, included the children's videophone, a pair of networked ski goggles equipped with a wireless phone and built-in video camera, and a wristwatch phone that acts as a pager and lets users get stock quotes and sport scores from the Internet. Other possibilities include a dual-screen Internet gaming system and a wireless travel guide that totes a video camera and can access the global positioning system.

"We give tangibility to what a networking company like AT&T can enable in the future with a broadband, always-on network," Gannes said.

AT&T is one of many companies with big ideas for interactive platforms. Providers of both content and delivery platforms for convergence devices are exploring all manner of ways to present interactive entertainment experiences to consumers over the next few years, ranging from delivering short, collectible films to cell phones and PDAs, to broadcasting TV-quality video to PCs and Internet Protocol-enabled set-top boxes.

"We believe there will be a proliferation of Net appliances and PDAs, with processing power that will exceed the power of digital set-top platforms," said Bruce Crowley, chairman of Hyper TV. "These devices will let each viewer control the interactive experience themselves — this is a very important part of convergence."

Whatever the vision, content providers at TV World NY 2000 eagerly anticipate a "one-screen convergence world," where consumers will access HDTV-quality video, audio, data, voice and e-commerce services with digital cable set-tops, PCs with TV tuner cards, and wireless phones and handhelds that can play multimedia. The single-screen world isn't expected to become reality until 2003, when such devices are widely deployed. In the meantime, cable television and direct-broadcast satellite providers will begin to offer interactive services over their networks. Over the next 12 months, electronic program guides, personalized TV, guided portals and enhanced broadcasting and communications services will be available. It will take longer to roll out streaming video, videoconferencing, targeted advertising, two-way audio and video communications, online photo albums, and banking and shopping services.

In Gannes' view, the products in the AT&T Imagine Kit are not pie in the sky. They take advantage of technology that exists or is only one generation away, like fast processors, large amounts of memory, small and cheap LCD screens, speech recognition, Bluetooth short-distance wireless networks and digital cellular technology.

In addition, the devices are designed so that they can be modified for use in wired as well as wireless environments. That means they will be able to work on what some industry pundits predict will be a two-tiered broadband network, with a wireless broadband connection to the home and wired broadband inside the home.

While the kids' communicator would use existing processor and memory technology, it would require smaller and cheaper LCDs to come in at an attractive price. Less-costly LCDs, along with next-generation processors, would also be needed to build the dual-screen Internet game machine. This gadget supports interactive videogames for multiple players using wireless connections and IP-based networks. The handheld device packs a camera, speaker, several controls, and a wireless or wired communication system over which users can contact any available individual or group for a game or collaborative session. The two screens permit simultaneous viewing of graphics and the player at the distant end.

While hardware manufacturers might have to wait for next-generation processor technology and lower LCD prices to bring such devices to market, the wireless broadband infrastructure that will bring the bits to the devices is even further away — several years, by most accounts.

"The core of the broadband network is there, but it's the edges of the network and the connections to people that still need to be built," said Gannes. "AT&T is investing billions in the wireless infrastructure in the United States and in the next couple of years, we will have the ability to use these devices to some degree on networks that allow sending of basic text messages."

Some of the Imagine Kit designs can be used on the basic wireless data networks slated to be deployed first. Others will require delivery of color graphics and rich media over the networks, tasks that will take longer to enable.

In the interim, Gannes said the devices may be developed to operate on existing two-way digital cable networks, since progress is more rapid in the wired world. In fact, AT&T envisions them operating in both wireless and wired environments depending on whether they are used inside or outside the home.

Gannes told EE Times that consumer electronics manufacturers have already expressed interest in developing devices in the Imagine Kit, but no deals have yet been signed.

In the meantime, Gannes and his group will go back to their real jobs of building systems for OEM customers and in their spare time will work on a set of concept devices for a second Imagine Kit. The engineers, who most recently built a low-cost, personal virtual private network device for cable modems — it's set for commercialization this year — will focus on wireless gizmos for the business person and on consumer health care applications, he said.

"I always wanted to build a health care device," said Gannes.