Show Me The Future

Smartron, a Hyderabad-based tech company, is building what it says is India’s first series of smart home systems.

- Alshaar Khan

DURING THE BETA DEMONSTRATION of upcoming smart technology platforms at the headquarters of Smartron, India’s first global technology OEM status aspirant, in the microcontrolled skyscrapers of Hyderabad, I felt like I was living inside Spike Jonze’s 2013 romantic sci-fi film, Her. There was no purr of Scarlett Johansson’s voice, but there definitely was a homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistant, Maya. With her ability to unlock doors, make coffee, adjust curtains according to the lighting and even suggest flights/hotels depending on your preferences, she left the door open to fall in love with her, like Joaquin Phoenix did in the movie.

Once inside the confines of Smartron’s Nanakramguda facility, it strikes you that it is taking giant strides in the country’s Internet of Things (IoT) scene. Led by founder Mahesh Lingareddy, it has developed tronX™, a ‘first of its kind’ AI-powered IoT platform with four verticals – tronX™ Personal, tronX™ Health, tronX™ Home and tronX™ Infra – which, according to the company, integrate human lives.

The intelligent ecosystem essentially connects a range of devices, sensors and systems to the tronX™ cores to offer highly intelligent, always evolving experiences and services. It’s similar to the Amazon Echo (a cylindrical smart speaker, powered by Amazon’s personal assistant Alexa, capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic and other real time information, along with the ability to control several smart devices using itself as a home automation hub), only more competent.