In the summer of 2004, moviegoers were wowed with the glimpse of a smart home in the Will Smith blockbuster "I, Robot." But it was still a sci-fi wonder at the time, so we applied our usual suspension of disbelief to go on enjoying the movie.

Today — just 10 years later — homeowners are actively looking at smart homes as a "must have" for their families. In 2013, we saw a consolidation for smart gadgets, from phones to tablets making their sure place in our lives. The stage is now set for futuristic homes that can keep up with the fast and smart pace that we have set for our lives now.

The 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January was quite a revelation in this regard. CES exhibited a wide range of futuristic technology applied to items of our daily use. The idea behind each of these new inventions is to bring forward technology that will ease human living even more.

From intelligent toothbrushes that help track your brushing habits to refrigerators, vacuums and washing machines that can be controlled with your smartphone to curved ultra-HD display TVs with sharper images than ever, you can have it all.

Will these advances make homes expensive? Yes, these futuristic homes do not fall in the affordable category — yet. Once these gadgets become necessities instead of luxuries, they will become affordable as well.

One might think the expense is going to put off buyers, but rising demand for futuristic homes has shown how the buyers' market has developed. In fact, the demand for luxury homes has actually doubled. A recent report by the National Association of Realtors has shown that the demand for million-dollar homes has grown by a staggering 7.8 percent in the last year, though the overall housing market hasn't grown as quickly.

It is no wonder that along with the demand for luxury homes, there is an associative demand for high-tech homes as well. We are now so used to smart gadgets and fast communications that we can no longer fathom concepts like processing time or delays to instant gratification.

If you can't wait to connect, why should you wait to do things around your house? Let the house start taking of itself and making your life easier. That is why we find new homeowners like the California Erwins, who have bought a futuristic home that is equipped with high-tech gadgets and is completely adaptable to future technology as well.

This is just one example in the sea of many such homes that are being constructed all over the country and selling from anything between $2 million and $20 million.

These homes can sport a wide array of technology: a biometric entry system, an automatic parking system that uses push-button robotics to park your car, safes that open to finger scans, lights that go on automatically when one walks in, a coffee machine that starts percolating when the owners is ready for a caffeine kick.

But futuristic homes are not just about being tech-friendly, they will also be eco-friendly. For example, all homes are climate-controlled and can be easily managed from an iPad or a smartphone to save energy.

Above all, these homes have a wow factor that has as much to do with their advanced interiors as it does with their state-of-the-art architecture. They are meant to make a statement, and they do that in spades.

Sometimes, they even manage to look like Star Wars props, which only goes on to show that our movies aren't really that far-fetched after all.