What if the bed you slept on last night could feel you tossing, turning, or curling up and quietly adjust to keep your spine supported without ever waking you? That question led Teja Vinukollu from a debilitating back injury to founding Water Robotics and unveiling CAMA, the world’s first fully adaptive sleep system.
Built around a concept Teja calls Active Ergonomics, CAMA doesn’t ask users to adapt to the bed; the bed adapts to them in real time.
For Teja, the idea wasn’t born from a single flash of inspiration. “It wasn’t really one lightning-bolt moment. I’d been thinking about starting something for a long time, but I had too many ideas floating around and no clear direction,” he says.
What finally gave him that direction was a diagnosis: a disc bulge at L4-L5 in the lower spine.
“A healthy spine has a slight S-curve,” Teja explains adding, “Mine had flattened out in the centre. Between each pair of spinal bones sits a jelly-like disc that acts as a shock absorber. When your spine straightens too much, that material starts protruding outward and presses on the nerve — that’s what causes a disc slip or lower back pain.”
What stayed with him wasn’t just the diagnosis but the unfairness of it. “What really bothered me was that something I never consciously did was now hurting my life,” he says.
That frustration evolved into a larger vision: “Every piece of furniture, every ‘non-living’ object around us, should have consciousness and intelligence — not just our phones, chatbots, or enterprise software, but real objects solving real human problems.”
After his diagnosis in 2023, Teja spent a year searching for a solution.
The problem, he says, is that humans naturally stop paying attention to posture. He notes, “You sit upright for a few seconds, and then your shoulders drop. Why? Because your brain is prioritising whatever you’re focused on, be it reading, listening, sleeping, typing, over maintaining your posture.”
That insight became the foundation of CAMA. “Our bed has around 10,752 sensors that constantly track how a person is sleeping and adjust its shape to support them,” he explains.
The system responds to specific situations. For expectant mothers, CAMA helps maintain the side-sleeping position recommended during the second and third trimesters. “A pregnant woman is supposed to sleep on her side — but how is she supposed to remember that while asleep?” Teja asks, and further adds, “The bed knows she’s pregnant and keeps her in that position automatically.”
It can also address acid reflux. He explains, “If you eat a heavy meal and lie down flat, food can travel back up into the esophagus — that’s GERD. The bed senses this and elevates itself slightly to prevent it.”
At the centre of Water Robotics’ CES debut is a collection of adaptive modes designed around everyday life.
There’s Together Mode, which allows couples to comfortably watch movies or browse social media together, and Anti-Snoring Mode, which detects snoring and gently shifts the sleeper into a better position.
For expectant mothers, Pregnancy Support Mode maintains recommended side-sleeping posture throughout the night.
The mode closest to Teja’s heart is Guardian Mode. “If I put my daughter down on the bed and step away for a few minutes, the bed makes sure she doesn’t roll off,” he highlights.
Then there’s Embrace mode. CAMA also pays attention to how users wake up. “Normally, you’re supposed to turn to your side before getting up, not sit straight up,” Teja explains. Through Wake-Up Posture Mode, the bed helps guide users into a safer position before rising.
Beyond that, GERD/Gastric Mode adjusts the bed after heavy meals to reduce acid reflux, while other features support reading positions and intimacy.
Looking beyond sleep, Teja sees adaptive surfaces becoming part of everyday life.
“Honestly, every surface that humans touch, feel, or interact with,” he says when asked where the technology could go next. “An office chair, a desk, a table, a sofa, a bed, the floor, a wall, a car seat, an airplane seat, a hotel bed — all of it. Every single surface we sit on, sleep on, or come into contact with should understand who we are and respond to us,” he concludes.