Sensor technology is transforming our lives: tracking our fitness, making our gadgets easy to use, and monitoring air quality, to mention just a few examples. To provide all these sophisticated functions to consumers, Bosch Sensortec’s sensors are evolving to be smarter – by integrating MEMS technology with embedded microcontrollers, software, and AI runs inside the sensor itself.
Image Credit: Bosch Sensortec
At CES®, Bosch Sensortec is showcasing its latest AI-enabled sensors, and highlighting how software adds value not only to the sensor but to the entire system.
Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO at Bosch Sensortec, said: “Bosch’s innovative cutting-edge sensor solutions are making an impact in diverse areas such as consumer health, smart homes and smart cities. AI and intelligent software are the key enabling technologies that make this possible.”
Vision 2030: Bosch Aims for More Than 10 Billion Intelligent Sensors
According to market research and strategy consulting company Yole Group, Bosch is the market leader for MEMS for the fourth year in a row. In 2024 alone, Bosch Sensortec surpassed the milestone of delivering over 1 billion MEMS sensors featuring integrated microcontrollers and software. From 2027 onwards, 90% of the products will include these integrated features. By 2030, the company aims to achieve a remarkable total of more than 10 billion MEMS sensors sold with this advanced integration.
AI on the Edge
With AI running on the edge (meaning directly in the sensor), there’s no need for constant cloud connectivity. This ensures data remains private, dramatically reduces latency, and cuts power consumption, all while delivering accurate real-time feedback to users.
State-of-the-art software solutions add value not only to the sensor but to the entire system, enabling new applications and forming the basis for AI inside the sensor itself.
Always-on and Ready to Go
Always-on technology is essential in consumer electronics, enabling continuous access to features without the need to activate the device and wake up the main processor. This significantly extends battery life, and creates a more intuitive and effortless experience for users, especially in smartphones and hearables.
This is achieved with intelligent sensors combined with smart software, enabling quick access to voice assistants, health monitoring, and more, empowered by MEMS sensors with integrated microcontrollers. Examples of always-on use cases include voice activity detection and keyword triggering to activate voice assistants in hearables, fall detection in smartwatches for faster emergency assistance, and automatic orientation sensing in smartphones to adjust modes and enter sleep mode when inactive.
Smart Connected Sensors (SCS): The Personal AI Feedback Coach
Can you imagine having unlimited access to a professional fitness trainer, with feedback at any time? This is the future of exercising – made possible by the Smart Connected Sensors platform from Bosch Sensortec.
The platform gives users qualitative feedback on the movement execution, as well as measuring movements and repetitions. Specifically designed for full-body motion tracking, the SCS platform provides a fully integrated hardware and software solution (based on the BHI380, a programmable IMU-based sensor system with AI) that dramatically cuts development costs and time to market.
A Sound Move for Software-Enabled Voice Control
Wireless headsets have transformed how we listen to music, podcasts and audiobooks, providing free, unhindered movement – as well as new features enabled by sensors, such as activity recognition and indoor navigation. But shifting to voice control can cause problems, when the system is triggered unintentionally because it reacts to ambient noise.
To fix this issue, Bosch Sensortec has come up with a software-based innovation: a new type of acceleration sensor, the BMA550, detects sound through bone vibrations. Intelligent algorithms then ensure voice control activates only when the wearer of the headset is actually speaking.
Take a Breath: Air Quality Sensing
Poor indoor air quality is a problem: the concentration of PM2.5 particulates from domestic cooking can reach levels 100 times higher than acceptable limits. Localized, actionable data from Bosch's particulate matter sensor for PM2.5 and PM1 enables effective responses to poor air quality. A software update coming soon will activate PM10 measurement in addition.
Almost the entire global population (99%) breathes air that exceeds WHO air quality limits, and threatens their health. Bosch’s BMV080 sensor uses software and intelligent algorithms, in a tiny, fanless design which is more than 450 times smaller than any comparable device on the market.
Open Platform and Strong Collaboration
Bosch can’t do all this alone and offers a framework that supports customers in creating movement classification algorithms specific for their own application. These models can then run on a smart motion sensor, such as the BHI360.
For example, Bosch Sensortec and Doublepoint have partnered to develop a powerful microgesture control solution for smartwatches, using the BHI360. This enables always-available, reliable control, such as allowing users to adjust light brightness with an intuitive pinch gesture.
Doublepoint's advanced algorithms are seamlessly integrated into Bosch’s compact, low-power IMUs via a new software tool. Compared to camera-based solutions, this IMU-based approach enables obstruction-free gesture detection, offering greater reliability and efficiency.
“This collaboration exemplifies Bosch Sensortec's commitment to innovation in the IoT and wearable markets, empowering manufacturers to bring advanced, user-friendly products to market more quickly,” said Lucas Ginzinger, Vice President Marketing and Business Strategy at Bosch Sensortec.