Photos: Accenture's home of the future

Like Intel and others, Accenture says that industries such as health care and retail can cut costs by more accurately tracking products and keeping in touch with customers.

Accenture doesn't make sensors but figures out ways to weave them together to form intelligent networks among ordinarily inert objects.

A window on the world? No, it's an LCD screen with curtains that offers a virtual view of the outside world, or serves up home photos from a PC. Just the thing you might want to brighten a basement, or perhaps the kitchen in a post-apocalyptic hideaway.