Glossary / Sensor fusion

Sensor fusion

Combining inputs from multiple sensors — motion, biometric, vision — into a richer signal than any one sensor provides; the highest level of the interface stack.

Introduced in Chapter 5 — Leveraging the Interface of Tangibles.

Related terms

• Sense-Decide-Act loop — The progression from sensing (monitoring) to adding a decision layer (analysis) to adding actuation (control) — the spine of what a connected device does with data.
• Sunk cost — Money already spent that cannot be recovered.
• Second watershed — The book's term for how AI reshapes both sides of the hardware equation: compressing development before launch and compounding capability after it.
• Switching cost — What a customer must give up to move to a competitor.