Futuristic home gadgets and appliances you will want in your home in 2016

We might not be living like The Jetsons just yet, but at the rate technology is advancing, we might not be that far off. 

Anyone who attend the consumer electronics trade show CES in Las Vegas last week would have had an insight into just what we can expect from home appliances in 2016. 

While we don’t have a robot as intelligent as Rosie just yet, it seems everything from showers to smoke alarms are being updated to fit in with the digital age. 

Here are five smart gadgets we’d love to have in our home in 2016. Take a look what’s instore.

Robotic bartender

Somabar

Step aside Sodastream and Nespresso, there is a new drink machine in town and this one is here to party.

Somabar is a robotic bartender that can mix more than 300 different types of cocktails. All you need is your iPhone and your favourite beverage’s ingredients.

The counter top appliance has six removable pods which can be filled with any type liquid, then simply select which drink recipe you want from the app and you will be sipping away on martinis in a matter of seconds. And if you’ve got a special mix that you can’t find in the app? Don’t worry because you can also create your own recipe. 

After launching an highly successful kickstarter campaign, which smashed the original target of $50,000 by more than $262,000, the Somabar was awarded the Innovative Award for the Home Appliance category at CES.  

Keen to get your hands on one? The manufacturers are currently in the process of beginning mass production of the machine, estimated to cost around $400.

Smart Bulb

Sengled Voice, a prototype bulb which will respond to voice commands.

Music playback bulbs have been around for a little while already, but a new prototype from Sengled will advance the smart bulb one step further.

Not only will the Sengled Voice bulb act as speakers and light for every room it is used in, it will also listen to you and respond to your commands, like to dim the lights.

Awarded the best innovation in the Smart Home category at CES, not only will you be able to stream music through the light, but it also acts as a security system, pinging alerts to your phone when things like broken glass or smoke is detected. 

We bet you Thomas Edison would never have imagined the humble lightbulb would be able to do so much.

Water monitoring shower head 

Hydrao shower head.

Are you guilty of standing under the shower a little longer than you probably should? A new flashing shower head could help.

​Hydrao Shower is a water monitoring shower head which progressively alerts you to how much water you have used over the course of your shower by changing colour. 

Three adjustable alerts can be set, with the light changing colour each time your water usage reaches a certain point. 

Managed through your smart device, you can customise your limit each time you shower and keep a log of your water usage. So not only does it help save water, it also keeps your water bill down. 

Sleep tracking bed

It Bed.

The word “smart” has been added to lots of items over the past decade and now you can add one more to the list: your bed.

Similar to what fitness activity trackers do, the It Bed tacks your night’s sleep and reports back on its quality by monitoring your heart rate, breathing rate and movement.

Sending daily reports to your smartphone, you are able to customise your daily activity and routine to ensure you achieve more than just 40 winks. 

It Bed

By syncing with other apps on your phone it will also be able to suggest earlier bed times when you have an early start by checking your calendar or see if traffic conditions are going to cause delays in the morning. 

And if you and your bedmate have differing ideas about the perfect mattress firmness, the It Bed has adjustable sides so you can both select your ideal mattress. 

Advanced smoke alarm

Halo+ smoke alarm.

Smoke alarms tend to be rather simple, but there have been advances in their technology too.

Claiming to be the “world’s safest, smartest smoke alarm”, the Halo+ will not only alert you if there is a fire in your home, but an embedded weather radio will also alert you about other external weather events, such as hurricanes, in your region. 

If that’s not enough, it can also detect the presences of carbon monoxide, use sensory detection to work out if a fire is fast-moving or smouldering and is smart enough to distinguish between a real fire or whether you just burnt your dinner, . 

And like all the smart tech seems to these days, it will send notifications to your phone if it does detect a danger.

What’s next?

As highlighted by the products on show at CES last week, lots of advances have been made in to make our homes smarter, safer and more environmentally friendly than ever.

But unfortunately there is still no word on when we can buy our own Rosie just yet.