Chinese firm Espressif Systems is working with Bosch Sensortec to create devices that detect motion and then use AI to react accordingly.

The aim is to accelerate the convergence of multimodal sensing and intelligent interaction, enabling devices to move seamlessly from environmental perception and motion detection to intent understanding and intelligent response.

Bosch Sensortec provides MEMS sensors and other sensing products. Together, the two companies are introducing AI-powered intelligent options that combine motion sensing with wireless connectivity and large-language-model intelligence.

The joint offering is designed to accelerate the convergence of multimodal sensing and intelligent interaction, enabling devices to move seamlessly from environmental perception and motion detection to intent understanding and intelligent response. Target applications include AI toys, smart home devices, health and fitness products, and intelligent office systems, delivering more natural, responsive and real-time user experiences.

“By integrating Bosch Sensortec’s proven high-performance MEMS sensors into our platforms, we can help customers build robust and precise sensing for a wide range of applications, while ensuring high quality at the foundational level,” said Teo Swee Ann, CEO of Espressif Systems.

Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO of Bosch Sensortec, added: “Through our collaboration with Espressif, we are making advanced sensing technologies more accessible and easier to deploy. Espressif’s strong ecosystem support plays an important role in driving broader adoption of sensors in consumer applications and shaping the next generation of IoT.”

The joint offering combines Bosch’s MEMS sensors and sensor algorithms with Espressif’s ESP32-C5 dual-band Wifi 6 SoC, which serves as the central controller. The collaboration leverages a range of Bosch MEMS sensors – including the BME690 environmental gas sensor, BMI270 motion IMU and BMM350 magnetometer – to enable precise multi-dimensional sensing with low power consumption. This integrated platform should help developers build flexible, multimodal interactions with efficient sensor fusion and real-time responsiveness.

This integrated architecture allows devices to interpret user actions and context accurately, whether for gesture recognition, scene awareness or intelligent feedback, while maintaining a streamlined data path and responsive interaction loop. Providing standard hardware and software building blocks reduces development complexity and validation effort, enabling faster time to market.

In smart-home scenarios, Espressif will provide native Home Assistant integration, along with open-source ESP32-C5 firmware, allowing devices to be automatically discovered and seamlessly integrated into Home Assistant automation workflows. A single device can serve multiple roles, for example, acting as a door or window sensor, wireless dimmer, or even a voice-enabled control node depending on configuration and automation logic.

In enterprise environments, motion and gesture aware devices based on ESP32-C5 can interpret subtle user actions locally and translate them into control commands for connected systems and services, enabling reminders, scheduling actions or environment adjustments without disrupting workflow.

For fitness and motion-tracking applications, Bosch’s IMU sensor enables accurate local motion analysis, while large-model intelligence provides contextual feedback, posture guidance and personal training recommendations delivered through multimodal outputs such as voice or lighting.

The same capabilities can be applied to AI-powered interactive toys, where motion sensing and intent recognition allow products to respond naturally to touch, movement and handling, closing the loop from perception to understanding to response.

To support rapid development and evaluation, Espressif and Bosch are introducing two ready-to-use hardware platforms.

Targeted at education, research and large-scale evaluation, the ESP-Sensair Shuttle features a modular sensor architecture. Based on ESP32-C5, it supports Bosch’s BME690 environmental sensor, BMI270 motion IMU and BMM350 magnetometer through interchangeable sensor boards, enabling environmental monitoring, motion and posture sensing, and magnetic field awareness. The platform’s ready-to-use firmware and open interfaces make it suitable for teaching, algorithm evaluation and product prototyping.

Designed for developers and makers, the ESP-Spot enables quick validation of motion-based interaction and intelligent control use cases. Built on ESP32-C5 and integrating Bosch’s BMI270 motion IMU and BMM350 magnetometer, it supports low-power motion detection, instant wake-up and gesture recognition. Complete hardware designs, firmware source code and documentation are provided to accelerate prototyping.

Through this collaboration, Espressif and Bosch are jointly helping developers build intelligent, motion-aware and AI-connected devices with efficiency, flexibility and scalability, unlocking possibilities for human–machine interaction across consumer and industrial applications.

Espressif Systems (www.espressif.com) is a semiconductor company specialising in wireless connectivity for AIoT applications. With a portfolio spanning wifi, Bluetooth, Thread and Matter technologies, it provides SoCs, software and services that enable secure, scalable and intelligent connected products.

Founded in 2005, Bosch Sensortec (www.bosch-sensortec.com) develops and markets MEMS sensors for smartphones, tablets, wearables and hearables, AR and VR devices, drones, robots, smart home and IoT applications. The portfolio includes three-axis accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, integrated six- and nine-axis sensors, smart sensors, barometric pressure sensors, humidity sensors, gas sensors, optical microsystems and software.