Lucía was standing in the kitchen beside the hot oven, waiting for her buns to finish baking. A cooling rack and a stack of paper napkins were ready on the table, alongside her new gesture-controlled fan. To keep the napkins from blowing around the kitchen, Lucía had pressed the button to set the fan to its lowest speed—she just wanted a gentle breeze.

Holding a printed recipe in front of her to check the baking time, she began absentmindedly fanning herself with it. Suddenly, the fan began to hum louder and blow harder.

Lucía stopped fanning herself and leaned in to look at the display: two speed bars were glowing instead of one. Assuming she had accidentally bumped the button with the edge of the paper, she reached over to set the recipe down. The sheet swept past the sensor again, pushing the fan to its third speed. A gust of air sent the top napkin sliding off the table. Lucía quickly pinned the rest down with the recipe paper, crossing the sensor yet again. The fan shut off completely. The kitchen fell quiet, and the heat rushed back with suspicious speed.

Lucía placed the recipe safely out of reach and finally noticed the sticker on the fan’s base: “Wave for next speed.” It turned out she had been asking for cool air far more insistently than she realized! To test her theory, she swept her palm past the sensor. The fan turned on at low speed. Another wave, and it sped up. She turned the fan sideways so she wouldn’t issue any more accidental commands, gathered the napkins from the floor, and just then heard the oven beep. The buns were a perfect golden brown; now she just had to wait until they were cool enough to touch without testing her pain tolerance.

After transferring the buns to the cooling rack, Lucía placed them in front of the fan and safely stowed the napkins in a drawer. With a few quick waves, she cycled back to a gentle breeze. A few minutes later, after glazing the first bun, she reached for the power button but stopped—her fingers were covered in sticky glaze. Smiling to herself, she simply passed the back of her hand over the sensor to boost the airflow and moved the rest of the buns closer. Gesture control was staying on; after a baking session, the buttons usually needed cleaning anyway.