Smart home makers: Which are you getting home?

Voice-controlled floor cleaner: Milagrow has added a new robot that you can speak to.

Ok, it's not quite as simple as instructing Shanta bai to do the jhadoo-pocha — but we're getting there! Milagrow, pioneered domestic cleaning robots in India and though there are now some global competitors, they hold their own by adding features every year. The Aquabot 7.0 "Spaze" has a wet and dry cleaning modes: the wet wiping mode is particularly useful in India. Virtual wall blockers to head of the robot cleaner from some parts of the room are the same as in earlier models. But the new innovation is to make the cleaner India's first voice-controlled robot, compatible with Amazon's Alexa smart app.

You can speak instructions to start, go, cleaning stop etc. Special modes take care of pet hair, carpet dust etc. The Aquabot "Spaze" costs Rs 36,000 but if you don't want the voice feature, you can save Rs 3,000 or so.

It's a breeze! UK -based Dyson has put its digital motor into a cordless vacuum cleaner

Vacuum cleaners have been around for a long time — but being mostly mains-operated, they present a small challenged, having long wires trailing all over the place. Battery operated models tend to be too small for serious floor cleaning. UK-based Dyson entered the Indian market last month with the V7 and V8 Cord-less (rechargeable) vacuum cleaners which can switch easily from hand held to stick mode. In a departure from conventional design, the motor and battery pack are placed in the handle, and ejecting the bin and scraping it clean is easy to do with sucking in a lot of dust. The docking station doubles as a charger. There are 3 models V7 for Rs 32,400 and 2 versions of the V8 for Rs 36,400 and 39,900.

—IndiaTechOnline