An electronic device (100, 700), comprising: at least one thermopile sensor (110, 210, 210A-C) for sensing a presence of an object within a field of view of the at least one thermopile sensor; a processing unit; a memory unit; and computer readable instructions (106, 108) stored in the memory unit that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the device (100, 700) to sense with the at least one thermopile sensor (110, 210, 210A-C) a baseline ambient spatial average temperature within the field of view; monitor the field of view for a variation in the ambient spatial average temperature of the field of view relative to the baseline ambient spatial average temperature; characterize any detected variation; determine whether the detected variation corresponds to one of a set of anticipated variations, each anticipated variation corresponding to an inferred intent of the object; and cause the electronic device (100, 700) to take at least one predetermined action responsive to a recognized variation, wherein characterizing a detected variation comprises periodically determining the ambient spatial average temperature within the field of view, and recording over time the variation in the measured ambient spatial average temperature relative to the baseline characteristic and wherein determining whether the detected variation corresponds to an anticipated variation comprises comparing characteristics (500, 600) of the recorded variation with characteristics of each of the set of anticipated variations, wherein the characteristics (500, 600) of the anticipated variations are stored as a look up table. at least one thermopile sensor (110, 210, 210A-C) for sensing a presence of an object within a field of view of the at least one thermopile sensor; a processing unit; a memory unit; and computer readable instructions (106, 108) stored in the memory unit that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the device (100, 700) to sense with the at least one thermopile sensor (110, 210, 210A-C) a baseline ambient spatial average temperature within the field of view; monitor the field of view for a variation in the ambient spatial average temperature of the field of view relative to the baseline ambient spatial average temperature; characterize any detected variation; determine whether the detected variation corresponds to one of a set of anticipated variations, each anticipated variation corresponding to an inferred intent of the object; and cause the electronic device (100, 700) to take at least one predetermined action responsive to a recognized variation, wherein characterizing a detected variation comprises periodically determining the ambient spatial average temperature within the field of view, and recording over time the variation in the measured ambient spatial average temperature relative to the baseline characteristic and wherein determining whether the detected variation corresponds to an anticipated variation comprises comparing characteristics (500, 600) of the recorded variation with characteristics of each of the set of anticipated variations, wherein the characteristics (500, 600) of the anticipated variations are stored as a look up table.