Be it under the umbrella of Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Buildings or Smart Cities; Sensors and the data they produce are making our society more energy efficient. However, in a world full of sensors are we making sure the sensors themselves are energy efficient? At present, 80% of the energy consumed by the sensors is used by the wireless connection. So the first logical step in making sensors more energy efficient, should be to reduce the amount of data they send. This can be done by processing and interpreting the data on the sensor itself, only sending the condensed results to the cloud. However, processing on the chip also consumes energy, so there is an optimal balance between on-chip processing and sending data to the cloud, in order to maximise energy efficiency. Another element of additional edge processing is the extra computation power needed, thankfully recent advances in chip technology are ideal for integrating […]