The concept of home automation has been around for a long time, especially in science-fiction that imagined future homes being completely automated and robots helping us with household chores. The technology hasn't been available to make these fantasies into reality. It was the year 1898. Nicolas Tesla was standing at the New York's Madison Square Garden with a crowd of intellectuals surrounding him. The crowd was watching him maneuver a mini toy boat in a pool of water using a transmitter control box. He was even able to flash its running lights on and off, all without any visible connection between the boat and controller. Few people at the time were aware that radio waves even existed and Tesla, an inventor often known to electrify the crowd with his creations, was pushing the boundaries yet again, with his remote-controlled vessel. Tesla believed that one day we may be able to endow a machine with its "own mind," where it, too, can act on environmental st...