Lake Charles is a beautiful community well seasoned with Cajun spice in the southwest corner of Louisiana. It’s deepwater port was a favorite hiding place for marauding pirates many years ago… captains of the oil industry live there today.

There’s so much fishing and hunting in the region that Lake Charles is best known as the ‘sportsman’s paradise’ – a real outdoors kind of place. But George Barbier is one Lake Charles resident who’s spending his free time indoors these days – with his amazing home theatre - and a personal assistant named Amy.

The extra screens give Mr. Barbier the ability to monitor several sports events or news programs simultaneously. When he’s watching a movie, the perimeter screens deliver video from various security cameras if a sensor is triggered. And when his three nephews and nieces visit, there are video game screens for everyone – along with headphones.

Mr. Barbier’s home theatre is equipped to view video in any format. His equipment list includes a Mitsubishi DVD player, two Mitsubishi VCRs, a Pioneer laser disc, and a DSS satellite dish. Audio is delivered by Pioneer receiver pumping 150 watts to Yamaha surround sound speakers with powered subwoofer system that shakes his sofa!. Other stereo equipment includes a Sony 200 disc CD player and a Pioneer 6 cassette multiplayer.

Mr. Barbier admits that he’d have big trouble controlling the home theatre he’s created - if it were not for Amy. When Barbier wants to fire up a video, he doesn’t go searching for a handful of remote controls. He simply tells Amy, "It’s movie time." Amy responds by powering up the DVD, the surround sound system, and the big screen TV. All settings between the devices are coordinated. And then, Amy dims the lights to the precise level that Mr. Barbier likes to watch video. When George Barbier says, "Thank you." Amy responds politely, "You’re welcome."

Amy is the voice of HAL2000, the digital home systems integration software from Home Automated Living. HAL2000 integrates control of all the systems of the home on the PC, including lights, security, telephone, climate, Internet, and home theatre. Once installed, HAL gives users the ability to control the home systems by voice from anywhere in the home – or anywhere in the world.

"I have been intrigued with home automation since I watched the Jetsons on TV many years ago" said George Barbier. "My ultimate dream was to have a totally voice interactive home. When I saw an ad about HAL2000, my first thought was that my dream had come true. This was the first single product that could tie everything together."

Since George Barbier installed HAL in his home, he has retired two dozen remote controls to a storage box in the attic. "I kept trying to find a remote that could do it all but they kept running out memory." Now he has Amy. Amy is the name of an old girl friend – he’s a bachelor. HAL lets the user name the personal assistant whatever he/she desires. The name becomes the ‘attention word’ and whenever it is spoken in the vicinity of a microphone connected to the computer, the computer responds, "Yes". Now the computer is listening for a conversational command like, "Turn on HBO". When Mr. Barbier says this, Amy powers up the big screen TV and lowers the shelf lighting in the nearby curio cabinet. When that is done, she inquires, "Is that the way you like it?"

Mr. Barbier has installed microphones and small powered speakers throughout his house so that he can converse with Amy from every room. That’s helpful because he has televisions in all rooms and he controls them all by voice. He has installed a microphone adjacent to his headboard so that he can tell Amy turn on the bedroom TV and set channel and volume.

Mr. Barbier has installed another microphone in the bathroom under the medicine cabinet. There is a TV in the bathroom. And there’s more. HAL also automates the Internet, dialing out to the Web at user-defined intervals, to bring back email, traffic, sports scores, stock quotes, TV listings and news headlines. So when he’s in the bathroom in the morning, Mr Barbier can ask Amy to read his email and report the news headlines along with the weather forecast.

There are twelve microphones throughout the Barbier house. They are all wired back to a mixer that connects to the computer sound card. For people who don’t want to go to the trouble of installing microphones and speakers throughout the house, HAL allows users to pick up a phone anywhere in the home, press the # key, and then carry on a conversation with HAL …or Amy as in George Barbier’s case.

Mr. Barbier relies on HAL to be the ‘operating system’ for his home. He uses HAL in conjunction with the JDS TimeCommander system to deliver powerline signals to devices throughout his home including all lighting and thermostat controls. To deliver control signals to the home theatre and to the TVs around the house, he talks via HAL to the JDS InfraRed Xpander. A Sunbelt On-screen Display is used to deliver Caller-ID to TV screens to help Barbier decide whether to interrupt viewing to take a call. Smartlinc Touchlinc pads are installed in the bedroom and the living room to provide a manual interface just in case Mr Barbier doesn’t feel like talking to Amy.

But Mr. Barbier talks to Amy every chance he gets. "Voice control has been a time saving interface with my home theatre system. It has eliminated searching for different remote controls, usually between couch cushions, or having to get up and push buttons. Now all I have to do is give a command through a microphone next to my couch."

And Amy helps George remember what he wants to watch. Every night at 7:55, Mr. Barbier has set up a ‘text-to speech’ macro in HAL that prompts Amy to speak up and say over all the speakers in the house, "Kate and Leo with Screensavers is on in five minutes. I will change the channel in two minutes." He has programmed similar reminders for other favorite programs.

Mr. Barbier admits he’s kind of a gadget geek. He’s always wanted the leading edge technology. Until now, he says, the kind of home control that HAL delivers was far too expensive. He predicts what he has now will be in every home before long. He’s glad he’s among the first to enjoy the level of home systems integration that HAL provides. Every night as he settles in to bed, he asks Amy to read him the news headlines from the day. And then he asks for the weather forecast for tomorrow. Then Amy says, "Goodnight, I’ll turn all lights off now. Don’t forget to say your prayers and have sweet dreams." It’s just enough computer companionship to keep a bachelor from going to bed lonely.