Photo courtesy of Neal Campbell.

I met up with local tech celebrity Cali Lewis briefly at SXSW Interactive and thought I’d ask her opinion on what the next big thing in technology will be.

Lewis produces and hosts Dallas-based Geek Brief TV (also known as shiny, happy tech news), a video podcast that provides news about technology and emerging trends in the industry.

She is in town to receive a Texas Social Media award from the Austin American-Statesman and was named as one of the top 50 influential people in tech by T3 Magazine in 2008.

So she knows a thing or two about a thing or two.

She recently declared 2009 as the year of the gadget house (or home automation), but said recent economic troubles may delay that prediction.

“With the economy the way it is, I’m not so sure that’s going to happen this year because that’s just kind of a luxury,” Lewis said.

But home automation, the ability to control most (if not all) appliances and gadgets from anywhere within your home with the push of a few buttons, is on its way to more consumers, she said.

“That and augmented reality are really the things that are going on right now,” Lewis said. “The research that’s happening with augmented reality is incredible.”

That’s the fourth time someone has mentioned augmented reality to me this week. I need to go invest in some augmented reality technology stock.