Apple could be working on a smart dock that uses Siri voice controls to activate in your home, according to a patent. But rather than simply being a dock for music this intelligent device is always listening so you can activate Siri on your docked phone to do anything - potentially including controlling the home. Is Apple working on a Star Trek style voice controller for the home?

We’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here. Primarily this is a dock with speakers for playing music, microphone for listening to commands, a screen, and some manual control buttons including a scroll wheel. But with the right app it could be so much more.

The proposal suggests the dock will always be listening and a command you set will activate Siri for more-detailed commands. So set a clap or whistle and it will activate. We know we’d use “computer” to activate it Star Trek style. So you could say: “Computer play Flock of Seagulls” and your home would be filled with instant Eighties music - just like you imagined the future would work.

Apple is yet to release a dock, as it usually leaves this to third-party manufacturers like the B&W Zeppelin Air sold in the Apple Store. So this might tread on their toes a bit, which isn’t something Apple would usually do. Perhaps this is merely a proof of concept that others could follow.

To take it to the next level, this dock could be connected to all your home’s smart devices and allow you to control it all from voice commands alone. Since the iPhone is the brain it would only take a software update. The future, it seems, is just around the corner.

READ: New Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air coming for iPhone 5 owners, with Lightning not 30-pin adapter