A 16-year-old innovator built a working smart assistant inside his bedroom switchboard. And it runs completely without the internet.
Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw publicly praised young developer Ridit Kumawat after an Instagram video demonstrated his custom hardware managing lights, fans, and room environments through localized voice commands. Kumawat named the DIY build Jarvis—borrowing the title from Tony Stark's fictional artificial intelligence in Marvel's Iron Man series. Yet unlike the Hollywood fantasy, Kumawat grounded his build in practical wiring and daily convenience.
Wonderful to see young minds turning curiosity into practical innovation! This offline voice-controlled system for lights and fans has real-world potential, particularly in making homes more accessible for the elderly and people with disabilities. A great example of how simple, ingenious ideas can address everyday challenges.
— Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Founder of Biocon
Kumawat mounted the compact hardware directly beside his bedroom switchboard to run his room completely hands-free. A single spoken prompt triggers individual circuits or fires multi-device routines.
The system acts immediately. In his recorded demonstration, Kumawat walked viewers through the live voice sequence:
I think this is one of the craziest things I have ever built because this tiny device can control my whole room. Let me show you. Jarvis, what can I do for you? All lights off. All lights are off. Fan on. Fan turned on. Good night. Good night, sir. Study mode on. Study mode turned on. Fan off. Fan turned off.
Pre-set configurations like "Study Mode" and "Goodnight" let the teenager execute several physical actions at once, cutting out the need to flip mechanical wall switches.
Most commercial smart-home hardware funnels user audio through corporate cloud pipelines. Kumawat discarded that design.
Mainstream voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home rely on distant cloud servers to decipher voice commands, exposing users to internet drops and privacy issues. In contrast, Kumawat engineered his assistant to process vocal patterns strictly on the device itself. Spoken prompts never leave the bedroom.
"The craziest part is that this works completely offline, unlike other devices like Google Home and Alexa," Kumawat stated during the demonstration. "So, privacy on top. I mean, isn't this better than that? I know it is."
| Feature Parameter | Kumawat's DIY Jarvis | Cloud Assistants (Amazon Alexa, Google Home) |
|---|---|---|
| Network Dependency | Zero internet connection required | Constant active broadband connection required |
| Audio Processing | 100% on-device local execution | External server and cloud transmission |
| Privacy Standard | Audio never leaves physical switchboard | Voice data transmitted to third-party data centres |
| Core Capabilities | Room lighting, fans, switchboard presets | Web queries, media streaming, ecosystem integrations |
Physical accessibility matters. Mazumdar-Shaw highlighted that Kumawat's design provides immediate utility for elderly citizens and people living with disabilities who face physical hurdles reaching manual switches.
Operating offline eliminates standard failure points—such as Wi-Fi dropouts, router crashes, and broadband bills. For households managing mobility challenges, local offline automation provides continuous, dependable environmental control at zero ongoing network cost.