Alexa, lights! How I turned my home into a sci-fi dream

For decades, sci-fi has told us voice operation is the way forward. Now AI butlers are here - and you don't have to be Mark Zuckerberg do build your own

The Internet of Things is here, they cried. Great, but do I really have to pull out my smartphone to do everything? Pushing a button was so much easier. Can't I just talk to my house now? Can I scream "red alert" and have my lights flash red? The Star Trek dream.

For decades we've been shown that voice is the future. From Star Trek's computer to Iron Man's Jarvis, science fiction has put voice control at the forefront of man-machine interaction. But until recently the best we could do was shout at a smartphone and hope for the best.