The clock itself is based on an Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 and a Featherwing display. ... he installed a small IR proximity sensor wired up to a PIC12F675 microcontroller.

An easy enough project using the ESP8266 and an IR LED, ... With the addition of a DHT11 sensor, [Giulio] can have the AC turn on and off based on the current room temperature.