Intelligent Sensing and AI-Based Security for Next-Generation Consumer Technologies

Over the past decade, the convergence of sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), and communication technologies has reshaped the entire consumer electronics landscape. Devices that were once simple tools have become interconnected platforms capable of analyzing complex environments, supporting mission-critical applications, and enhancing human capabilities across entertainment, education, health care, and global communication. Today, consumer technologies are expected to operate not only efficiently and intuitively but also securely, robustly, and with a deep understanding of the physical and digital contexts around them. Intelligent sensing enables devices to perceive and reconstruct the real world with unprecedented fidelity, while AI-based algorithms empower decision making, personalization, and automation. At the same time, the growing dependence on digital ecosystems introduces new security challenges, particularly as adversarial attacks, while massive resource classification, mixed-reality (MR) interactions, and satellite–terrestrial communications become part of everyday consumer applications. The articles in this issue highlight the transformative role of intelligent sensing and AI-based security in shaping next-generation consumer technologies. They address topics as diverse as adversarially robust malware detection, spatially aware crowdsensing frameworks, large-scale 3D environment scanning, wearable medical diagnostics, massive categorization for Metaverse environments, MR solutions for remote medical support, and secure communication systems enhanced by generative foundation models. Despite the diversity of these application scenarios, a unifying thread emerges: the increasing reliance on advanced AI-driven methods and sensing technologies to ensure that consumer devices are accurate, secure, and capable of supporting emerging forms of human–machine interaction. The current issue of MCE focuses on these aspects, exploring them through the analysis of seven different application scenarios.