It won't be long before we're using giant, wall-sized touchscreens to organize our home life and do our jobs. We'll talk to faraway relatives on these screens as our virtual, personal chefs tell us what to cook with the food in our fridge. All of our gadgets will respond to our voice commands. And we'll seamlessly transfer information between those gadgets with a few swipes and taps.

This is Microsoft's bold vision of the future, which it outlined in a video released Friday to announce its new Envisioning Center in Richmond. The Center highlights Microsoft's vision of the future of computing – not for generations to come, but in the next five to 10 years. That future, of course, involves a lot of Microsoft products, especially its new Surface tablets.

Microsoft showed off a world where the physical and digital converge seamlessly. You'll be able to interact with digital screens on your walls, and push information from your Surface tablet or Windows smartphone to those walls. When you're home, you'll be able to push photos to all of the devices in your house – say, for example, digital photo frames you have hanging on the walls or sitting on shelves.

The company paints a world where your home is incredibly smart, thanks to all of these wall-based computers and screens. At one point a man in a kitchen is cooking and, as if by magic, the recipe is projected onto the counter top. (Or maybe his counter top is a touchscreen computer as well? The future isn't always highly specific.) Microsoft is clear, though: Before long, your entire home will be incredibly smart and thoroughly lined with dozens of connected devices, sold by Microsoft or containing its software.

Redmond's vision is definitely idyllic. Grandma reads stories to her grandkids, who live far away. And not only that, the kids can watch the story unfold as a cartoon on the giant, pervasive screens across the home. If the little girl doesn't like airplanes, she can make the characters travel by train just by voice commands. Forget keyboard, in Microsoft's future, the computers respond quickly and efficiently to your voice.

"I like to think of it as a concept car that allows us to share what it might be like to experience future technologies with visitors, get their feedback, tweak, remix and discuss," Microsoft editor Steve Clayton wrote in a blog post announcing the Envisioning Center. "It’s all part of advancing the trends we think have the greatest potential."

The future of computing certainly looks bright and full of potential through Microsoft's lens. But just keep in mind that a two-minute video depicting the future is much easier to make than the actual products the company suggests will exist in the coming years. Even if it knows where it wants to go, getting there can be brutally hard.