Let’s take a moment to have a look at the robots currently invading our lives – smart home devices. If you’re in the middle of a reno, now’s a good time to think about how you can incorporate some of these devices into your home. And even if you’re not, there’s still plenty of opportunity to give this technology a go. Here’s our list of top devices to look out for.

Google Home

It’s one of the biggest names in the intelligent home business. If it weren’t so useful, it would probably be a bit creepy with just how much it knows. The Google Home CV includes skills such as personal assistance with everything from your schedule to your grocery list, translating, calculating, weather forecasting, music playing, TV syncing, and even connecting and controlling all the other smart home systems in your house.

Google Home (roughly $199) has become the epitome of smart home technology, and there’s no doubt that it’s a great place to start if you’re looking to make your day-to-day life a little bit easier.

Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo is the device giving Google Home a run for its money. Literally. The Amazon Echo generally does all the same things as the Google Home, connecting to Alexa to help out with playing music, checking the weather, and being the boss of your other home devices, plus it has approximately 24,000 third-party skills compared with Google’s 18,000. The Echo is also more affordable at roughly $119, but it does have its downsides – it’s a little less easy to use than Google Home, and the music quality isn’t quite as good, but it’s certainly still an excellent option.

Nest Protect

The Nest Protect is one piece of smart home security you probably don’t even realise exists. This device is a smoke detector and carbon monoxide alarm, which not only offers levels of urgency (so you can stop waking up the neighbours four streets over whenever you burn the toast) but also alerts your smartphone when something’s going on. You can even hush the alert from your phone to tell the Nest Protect that it’s a false alarm – no more waving a tea towel at the ceiling. The best part is, there are no annoying beeps when the battery starts to give up, as it’s connected to your home’s power (with a battery back up in case of outages).

Hue Smart Light Bulbs

A light bulb is widely known as the symbol for a good idea, and the Hue Smart Light Bulbs take this icon quite literally. These bulbs can be switched on to mimic sunlight, to create white light, to dim down to a romantic glow, or to brighten up for a rainbow of colour in your living room. All of which, of course, can be controlled by your smartphone or tablet. Smart home lighting makes the old ‘switch-on-switch-off’ lights look a bit Medieval, don’t they?

Arlo Pro

The Arlo Pro has solidified itself as one of the best smart home systems on the market. It’s basically a security camera on steroids. It features a massive 1080 HD resolution for clear-as-day images, as well as night vision, two-way talk, sound alerts, activity zones, and a week of event-based cloud storage for free (and you can buy more if you prefer). Note that if you’re looking to invest, the Arlo Pro is more expensive than the Arlo Q, but it does allow you to log in to check the camera from more than one mobile device at a time, which may be preferable for many users.

 These are only a handful of the handy smart home gadgets on the market today. Essentially, if you think you could do with a smart device to help you with anything from answering your front door (Nest Hello) to improving your home’s temperature (Ecobee4), it probably already exists (and if it doesn’t, patent that money-maker ASAP).