Digital Eyes and Ears That Sip Power

Sensor makers want your charge to go further. Qualcomm’s new Glance system packages up a lens, image sensor, and low-power computer-vision processor. The resulting package can be used to, say, help detect your face to unlock a phone while using a fraction of the power of a regular camera module. Meanwhile, Boston startup Vesper has developed a new kind of piezoelectric microphone that doesn’t require a constant energy supply—and, perhaps best of all, won’t break if you spill your beer on it.