Tired of waking up at 3 am, Bengaluru techie builds AI fan that knows when he’s hot or cold

Artificial Intelligence is usually linked with big companies, complex tools and high end machines. But sometimes, the most talked about AI story comes from a regular bedroom. A techie from Bengaluru has turned his ceiling fan into a smart system that understands how he sleeps. And the internet is loving it.

This is not about luxury. It started with a simple sleep problem that many people quietly deal with. Waking up in the middle of the night feeling too hot or too cold. Instead of adjusting the fan again and again, this software engineer decided to let technology handle it.

The problem that led to innovation

The man behind this idea is Pankaj. He shared his project on X, where he is known by the handle @the2ndfloorguy. He described his setup as an AI-powered “roommate” that takes care of the fan while he sleeps.

In his post, he explained the reason in simple words. He was “tired of waking up at 3 am either sweaty or freezing.” That frustration pushed him to build a system that could read his sleep posture and adjust the fan automatically.

How the AI-powered fan reads body language

The working idea is straightforward. If his arms or legs are outside the blanket, the system understands that he might be feeling warm and turns the fan on. If his arms are curled up, which suggests he is cold, the fan switches off.

To make the physical switch happen, he used a remote button pusher device. This device presses the fan switch when it receives a command from the system.

The technical part includes a MediaPipe pose vision model running on his Raspberry Pi home server. The model tracks his body joints in real time while he sleeps. Based on the posture it detects, it sends signals to control the fan.

In the image he shared, the bedroom setup appears simple. A camera overlay marks different body joints, and there is a label that reads “FAN_ON ratio=2.32,” showing how the system decides when the fan should be on.

“That’s it,” he wrote, describing it as what a “real smart home” looks like.

Social media reactions pour in

Soon after the post went live, users began praising the creativity behind the project.

One user wrote, “You are building solutions every other day like they are piece of cake !! Total out-of-the- box thinking and great use of tech.”

Another commented, “Your AI roommate does more for you than most actual roommates.”

Many others appreciated the idea as a practical example of artificial intelligence in daily life. It was not just automation for comfort. It was a personalised comfort solution built from scratch. Some users also asked him to share a tutorial so they could try recreating the AI-powered fan setup in their own homes.

Thumb image: X