Leave the Vacuuming (and Other Domestic Bliss) to Us

The high-technology kitchen of the future, ballyhooed a decade ago, has yet to arrive. But if the kitchen has not gotten "smart," many gadgets used around the house are becoming smarter, from irons that go cold if they accidentally fall to vacuum cleaners that remember when to clean up the living room.

WESTINGHOUSE BLENDER

Blenders have had brains creeping in for several years. Although the Westinghouse Intelliblend (, manufacturer's suggested price) keeps its functions simple, offering the usual blend, chop, purée, mix and ice-crush settings, there is a small brain in the base holding more than 400 recipes, all accessible on the liquid-crystal display. Type in an ingredient or the concoction you want, and the blender suggests a panoply of drinks, dressings and sauces.

ICEBOX AND BEYOND SMART MICROWAVE

Beyond, a division of Salton, offers a line of digital kitchen appliances, including the iCEBOX, a device that stores a large database of recipes. Though there is no hard drive, the information is held in a cache memory; when you want to recall a recipe, the iCEBOX takes you to the Web site where you originally got it. The Beyond Smart Microwave Oven (8) works in tandem with the iCEBOX system, but it's also useful on its own, eliminating the guesswork that goes into "zapping" food. A scanning wand on the microwave reads the bar code on food packages and automatically sets the correct cooking times and power. Besides the 4,000 bar codes already stored in the system, the oven remembers new codes that you scan.

NEATRECEIPTS

FThe NeatReceipts Scanalizer (0) is a scanner that eliminates the clutter in the kitchen junk drawer by allowing you to store restaurant menus, lunch receipts, plumbers' business cards and other small documents in your computer. Resembling a small desktop printer, it is simplicity itself: slide your document in one end, and the machine reads it and spits it out. The documents can be converted into almost any format and exported into any word-processing program for PC's. The scanner is also helpful come tax time.

ROOMBA

Organizing receipts is one task; vacuuming your house is quite another, falling into the category of domestic grunt work. There are a number of automated vacuums on the market, but iRobot's Roomba, a Frisbee-size machine, is the leader, selling more than a million. The Roomba Scheduler (0), its high-end machine, is programmed to do up to a week's worth of floor and carpet cleaning. The user selects the times and dates with a remote control, which beams the information to the Roomba, sending it on its appointed rounds. When the Roomba is power-weary, it heads to its home-base recharger. For those who own a Roomba and want to upgrade, a Scheduler accessory pack () is available.

OLISO STEAM IRON

The Oliso TG-800 Touch and Glide steam iron (0) reduces the risk of scorching clothes or, worse, fire. It has a mechanism that turns the iron off when it is idle for more than 8 minutes, or after 30 seconds if the iron falls over. Even when the iron is in horizontal pressing position, it is supported by four built-in legs that retract only when pressure is applied to the handle.

HEALTHCARE AT HOME

Is too much information a good thing or a bad thing? That depends on how you view the Healthometer HDM520-18 Monitoring and Body Fat Scale (), which calculates a person's weight and body fat, then monitors those fluctuations accordingly. The process begins by putting in your sex, height and starting weight. Every subsequent trip to the scale will show weight and body fat percentage. (The scale stores the information of up to four people.)

In keeping with the trend toward more conscientious health care at home, Omron's HEM-780 automatic blood-pressure monitor (0) is as easy to use as stand-alone monitors found in drugstores. The monitor's ComFit cuff conforms to your arm size; press the start button, and the cuff gently applies the appropriate pressure. A liquid-crystal display shows your blood pressure and pulse, which are stored in the monitor's memory to track later changes.

VIKING SEWING MACHINE

Sewing machines have come a long way since you fiddled with your mother's old Singer. Now, computerized machines like the Husqvarna Viking's Designer SE (,500) crank out 1,000 stitches or more a minute, compared with the 200-a-minute rate of older machines. The SE is basically a computer with a sewing needle attached to it. Its touch screen offers 65,000 colors of clear text and three-dimensional pictures of stitches, stitch functions and embroidery designs. Hook the machine up to a PC through a U.S.B. port, and thousands of embroidery patterns can be downloaded from the Internet. The SE's software can convert almost any design into a digitized template that the machine will sew virtually on its own, automatically lowering the presser foot to start, cutting your threads when you finish a seam.

The AlcoHawk Precision breathalyzer (), a useful tool during the holidays, evaluates your ability to drive after a night's revelry. Place the valve in your mouth 20 minutes after drinking alcohol and breathe normally for five seconds; your blood alcohol level will show on the gadget's light-emitting-diode readout. (The legal limit in most states is 0.08 percent.) The Precision, which runs for 200 tests on a nine-volt battery, is approved as an alcohol screening device by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is used by police departments and hospitals nationwide.

BLACK & DECKER STORM STATION

Of course, many devices cannot work without the most basic high-tech fossil fuel - electricity. When that fails, Black & Decker's SS925 Storm Station (8) all-in-one rechargeable power source will get you through an emergency. This unit, which resembles a car-battery charger, runs on 25 watts of power, enough to run a weather-band radio, flashlight and locator light that illuminates the unit when your own lights might go on the blink. The unit operates low-wattage appliances, and a 12-volt recharging port will add juice to your cellphone.

Photographs by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times