Akshay Kaparthi ← Back to work
Hardware · IoT · Physical Computing — 2025

A bedside device that
reads your body, not the room.

Smart Sleep‑Based AC Control is an ESP32‑powered system that tracks how thermal comfort shifts through the night and adjusts the air conditioner automatically — so the room never has to guess, and the sleeper never has to wake up to fix it.

RoleProduct & interaction design, embedded logic
StackESP32 · temperature sensing · OLED · IR/relay control
OutputWorking hardware prototype
Problem

Static cooling fights a body that never stops changing.

01

Too hot, too cold

Sleepers wake up thermally uncomfortable, fragmenting rest and recovery cycles they're not even aware of losing.

02

Fixed AC settings

The unit holds one temperature all night, indifferent to how the body's needs shift between 10pm and dawn.

03

Manual interruption

Reaching for the remote means waking up fully — the fix costs the same sleep it's trying to protect.

Key insight

Comfort is driven by body temperature, not room temperature.

Core body temperature drops at sleep onset and climbs again toward morning — a rhythm every static AC ignores. Scrub through a typical night below to see how the gap between room and body opens and closes.

The night, simulated

Drag the dial to move through the sleep cycle and watch the system respond.

Time11:30 PM
Body temp36.4°
AC actionCooling
10:00 PM12:00 AM2:00 AM4:00 AM6:00 AM7:30 AM
Even a 1–2°C deviation from the comfort band is enough to pull a sleeper from deep sleep into light sleep. Conventional units run on a timer or a single manual setting — they have no signal for this at all.
Opportunity

Could the AC respond to the sleeper, in real time, without asking?

Automate adjustment

Remove manual temperature changes entirely by letting the system read and react on its own.

Reduce intervention

Keep the sleeper undisturbed by handling every thermal decision autonomously, all night.

Improve sleep quality

Hold a consistently comfortable thermal window that supports deeper, more restorative sleep.

Solution

A compact bedside unit that never needs a remote.

23.4°C STATUS · OK
01

Temperature sensing

Continuously reads ambient and surface temperature to infer real‑time comfort levels.

02

Automatic AC adjustment

Issues control signals to the AC based on live comfort analysis — no app, no remote.

03

Works with existing AC

Integrates with standard air conditioning systems already in the room — nothing to replace.

System flow

From sensing to comfort, automatically.

i

Detect temp

Sensors sample ambient and surface temperature continuously.

ii

Process logic

The ESP32 runs comfort logic against the sleep‑stage model.

iii

Adjust cooling

Control signals reach the AC the moment a deviation is found.

iv

Maintain comfort

The system holds the target band steady until the next shift.

Prototype

What was actually built.

TEMP: 23.5°C STATUS: OK
01

ESP32‑based system

Low‑power microcontroller handling all sensing and control logic.

02

Temperature sensing

Accurate ambient readings captured continuously across simulated sleep sessions.

03

Real‑time display

An on‑device display shows current temperature and system status for monitoring and validation.

Impact

Intelligence added to an appliance the room already has.

0

Manual adjustments

Fully automated — the sleeper never touches the AC overnight.

24/7

Continuous monitoring

The system runs around the clock, adapting to shifting comfort needs in real time.

Existing AC required

No new hardware investment — it works with the AC unit already in the room.

A scalable, low‑cost way to bring intelligence to an everyday appliance — without ever disrupting the sleeper's night.