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Rahul and Mona Kapur, a typical young urban professional couple, both in their mid 30s. While Rahul is an investment banker with a leading MNC bank, Mona is the HR head of a leading BPO organization. Like many similar couples, they too draw home a fat seven-figure salary. Six months back the Kapurs decided to shift their new home to a modern apartment in Pune. And this was not without a reason.

Once they set up their new abode, the Kapurs are looking to make it a true 'dream home'. Again, this would be similar to the aspirations of thousands of other similar couples. But what differentiated the Kapurs were the measures they took to make their 'dream home' also a smart and intelligent one. They wanted a house that would automatically take care of all their needs-dusting, cooking, laundry, bathroom, security, entertainment et al.

Both Rahul and Mona are determined that the pressures of working in a stressful environment do not knock them down. And its not the daily yoga, or a strict diet regime, or the workout at the office gym that the two are looking forward to as the solution. Instead it would be their 'home, sweet home', which would have, as the two say: "all the comforts of a fully automated place, that enables us to unwind and ward off our stresses."

Though the couple are widely travelled, they still insist that their "smart, digital home is the most comforting place." Electronic devices are all over the place-you name it, they have it. The Wi-Fi enabled home is full of modern gadgets and gizmos-from a home theatre to an MP3 player, IPTV to digital camera... But it is not just the presence of these gizmos that make Kapurs' a digital home. The full flexibility of using the Internet in a WiFi enabled home, the ease of operating all electrical appliances with the click of a button have added to their comfortable lifestyle.

And the Kapoors are not alone. Their story is similar to several such urban couples who have opted for such "smart homes" that are coming up in Bangalore, Mumbai and Gurgaon. Not to miss the fact that India is wittnessing the return of global Indians, who are using technologies, prevalent elsewhere in the world to make their home a more comfortable experience.

A Normal Working day
Imagine the daily routine of a normal working day: in the morning, Rahul is woken up by his current favourite audio and video track by the Columbian pop star, Shakira, tuned to ring at 06:30 am in the morning. Being a music freak, the hip-hop number perfectly sets the tone of his day. Even without getting into the kitchen, he starts his electric kettle with a click and the tea is ready for both Mr and Mrs Kapur. While working out in his personal gym, he listens to his other favourites downloaded from his i-pod onto his music system. The lamps of the room light up and the doors open (with just a click) as he enters.

As Mona sips her tea on the bed, she can automate the geyser temperature in the bathroom-soon it will be time to get Payal ready for her school bus. Breakfast, the favourite meal of the day for both the Kapurs, is ready on a trice, even as they are busy with their other chores. In fact, they have to enter the kitchen only to put the food on the dining table; from the outside, they can control everything else-the cooking range and the toaster. Meanwhile, both the milkman and the newspaperman have made their calls-their specific rings are automatically stored and the Kapurs need not bother to check out. And, anyway, the door security CCTV shows who's at the door. Once ready for the day's grind, they click open the garage door using remote switch and are out in their car. On their way they drop their six-year old daughter Payal at the school bus pick-up spot. And, not to forget, before leaving they have put food in the refrigerator and the microwave-obviously with automated timers at regulated temperatures, which Mona can control from her office only.

As Payal comes back from school at 1:30, her favourite lunch is ready. And though the maid has also come in, Mona can get a complete view of her house sitting at the office. Apart from monitoring security of the house, Kapurs' 'Smart Home' also gives both of them a glimpse of what Payal is doing and the tricks she is up to. The door security CCTV enables the maid to ignore calls of any unwanted strangers.

That's not all! The menu for the day's dinner is there on the PC. They get hot cups of coffee as they come home after a long, tiring day at work. The room temperature is automatically adjusted according to their requirements. The digital answering machine handles all their calls, saves in all voice messages in their personal voice message box.... On other evenings, they regularly catch up with their relatives through chat using webcam-Rahul's parents are in Amritsar, Mona's in Lucknow; their cousins in varied places ranging from Dallas, Birmingham, Ontario, Auckland to Mumbai, Bangalore and Dubai.

Gaming, videos, movies, music, live TV, video on demand and photos from flexible, connected and interoperable devices; it's all there and much more. The Kapurs' home, though just a case in point, is a welcome exception even in the urban landscape. Though digital homes are starting to show up in India, there is still some time before we see a regular influx of smart homes, like the one Kapurs have, across our cities. How far are we from this dream is certainly a million dollar question, which most tech giants are grappling with.

No Pipe Dream This
While the digital home that the Kapurs have built in Gurgaon sounds like a Ray Bradbury fiction, for urban India it might not be such a futuristic dream after all.

Recent activities though point out that fully automated digital homes may soon cease to be the brickwork of imagination. Residents, at least the ones occupying space in some fresh realty projects in Pune and Bangalore, would be able to control their home security, appliances and seamless telephony with a click of the remote or a swipe of the smart card. Mumbai-based Aftek, who under the name of Digi Home Solutions has deployed Digital Home Gateway Solutions can be thanked for this. Currently installed at Rohan Tapovan (112 flats), Wonder Futura (118 flats) in Pune and Rohan Ashima (64 villas) in Bangalore, this solution claims to address areas like security, safety, automation, entertainment, information and communication, and deliver a hi-tech home for its denizens.

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