The Next Generation of Home Automation Smart homes have come a long way -- how much can you automate to make your life easier?

Remember Rosie from the Jetsons? She was the XB-500 model robotic maid helping Mr. and Mrs. Jetson keep their house clean on mainstream TV in the 60's and later the 80's.

Rosie was a fictional state-of-the-art robot for her time, giving people a glimpse into what home automation could look like in the future. Rosie is now sentimentally vintage, and while we still don't have automated robot butlers a la Rosie, we are able to control and automate just about any mechanical feature in our homes using a smartphone or smartwatch.

So much has happened in home automation in a short period of time, but if you are still not using any of this technology in your own home, maybe it's because you think the learning curve is too steep, you're worried about security or you don't understand what all the fuss is about.