(FORTUNE Small Business) – Office walls that sense how you're feeling, technology that translates small movements into big actions, and chairs that know when you need to chill out: Enter the office of tomorrow, where intelligent technology will boost productivity without burnout. Products being prototyped by companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Steelcase will deliver only the information you need and only when you want it. "There's an unlimited amount of content coming at us at an unnatural rate," says Mark Greiner, a senior vice president at Steelcase in Grand Rapids. Here is a look at the technologies helping to create the kind of Jetsonian office that has existed only in our imaginations. —MAGGIE OVERFELT

IMMERSIVE INTERFACES: [1] View many documents at once on the large, wraparound computer screen (three times the width of a 17-inch monitor) being developed at Microsoft's Center for Information Work. [2] "Haptic" devices will replace the mouse, letting you use your hands to move, say, an Excel spreadsheet from one screen to another. [3] Wall-mounted screens will display digital art supplied by companies such as Roku, based in Palo Alto. [4] Instead of connecting colleagues via phone, tele-immersion technology will use miniature cameras and tracking technology to project a 3-D image of conferees.

AMBIENT TECHNOLOGY: [5] Ambient technology, which uses the physical environment to convey digital information, will let you retrieve data more subtly. A glance at the Ambient Orb made by Ambient Devices of Cambridge, Mass., will tell you silently, via changing colors, how your stock prices are performing or whether traffic is heavy or light. [6] The Weather Beacon turns blue when temperatures drop and red when they rise, and pulsates if rain or snow is moving in. [7] Tiny LED lights built into desks and door nameplates will blink when a co-worker is off the phone.

SMART FURNITURE: [8] Can't remember the key points for your big proposal? Your desk will refresh your memory when you call up images and text on its surface, which is embedded with video displays and powered by scanners. [9] And if you get too stressed your chair, lined with sensors, will alert you to calm down, based on your spine's rigidity. [10] No window? Ask your office for a Maui Sunset, a concept pioneered by Lumileds of San Jose, a manufacturer of LEDs. Controlled by voice commands, LEDs will replace fluorescent lights and will be programmable to gradually change, matching your mood or the dwindling daylight outside.

YOU'RE TAGGED: [11] Thanks to the RFID tags in your cell, PDA, or watch, your building will identify you and alert your computer, which will boot up just as you walk through the door. [12] Ubitags, made by Ubisense of Cambridge, England, will locate your co-workers, lighting up or buzzing when they become available.

CONSIDERATE COMPUTING: [13] This emerging field uses tiny cameras to facilitate "social interaction" between users and their devices. A computer that has IBM's BlueEyes technology will activate once you make eye contact, at which point you could tell the PC to "turn on." [14] Other devices, such as phones or speakers, will automatically shut down or start up based on your mood. [15] When you need to talk with your COO in the office next door, BlueEyes, assisted by ceiling-mounted cameras, will detect that you are gazing and leaning toward the wall, and the normally opaque glass partition will turn clear so you can talk without standing up.