Application Highlight: Infineon Makes HMI the Main Event

By Ken Briodagh

Editor in Chief

Embedded Computing Design

August 04, 2025

Although there is always a lot of talk about Human-Machine Interfaces, or HMI, whenever engineers are designing a new system, the most common way that people encounter HMI is at home, usually in front of their laptop.

PC accessory architecture for better HMI is rapidly evolving thanks to improved technology, emerging specifications, stricter security regulations, and enhanced sensor capabilities.

Application Use Case

PC accessories typically refer to any device added to a computer that provides additional capabilities or features. This can mean any kind of product like mice, keyboards, remotes, docking stations, monitors, headsets, or webcams. There are more than 400 million of these PC HMI accessory units shipped annually, so these devices are practically ubiquitous in modern consumer computing.

PC HMIs are in an ever-evolving innovation cycle, as consumers demand better features and differentiation, causing some truly challenging design cycles. These device iterations can involve anything from adding presence-based experiences to supporting the latest in USB Type-C Power Delivery specifications. Some of the most popular and important features now coming into the PC HMI space use increased sensor content to provide context-aware, smarter, and smoother user experiences. These can include proximity and presence detection in HID devices, on/off detection, and in-ear detection for headphones and TWS.

With all these developments on such a speedy cycle, reliable Bluetooth connectivity is critical, as are security and authentication.

Infineon

With nearly two decades of wireless HID and HMI experience, Infineon is a prime partner choice to help you “ditch the dongle.”

Infineon’s CYW20829 Bluetooth LE 5.4 SoC is the only chipset engineered for Intel Evo Certified at the chipset and SDK level, which allows the company to boast best-in-class direct-to-host connections. It is also Ultra-Low Latency HID ready, the company says, by adopting the latest Bluetooth specification developed in conjunction with the HID Working Group and delivering 1 millisecond standardized latency.

For more rigorous needs, such as those required by customers in banking and government, Infineon offers the IoT-class AIROC Wi-Fi 6/6E portfolio with extensive cloud-agnostic infrastructure, WPA3 enterprise security, and edge telemetry.

To ease development and speed time to market, Infineon worked with ITON to create turnkey mouse and keyboard designs based on the AIROC CYW20829 Bluetooth LE 5.4 SoC and PSOC4000T CAPSENSE MCU. These turnkey designs are engineered for Intel Evo support, CAPSENSE-based proximity and presence detection with dynamic backlight control, and top performance in terms of RF fidelity and battery life. These designs also support the emerging Cyber Resiliency Act (CRA) and Radio Equipment Directive (RED) security standards, which are mandatory for shipping wireless devices into Europe.

The HMI space is full of exciting innovations in touchscreens, haptic feedback, and thousands of other flashy features, but the day-to-day functions of smooth and fast connectivity, good security, and simple operations will always be the base of good practice. And Infineon makes it easy to make it easy.

Additional Resources:

Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers, he would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars. In previous lives, he’s been a short order cook, telemarketer, medical supply technician, mover of the bodies at a funeral home, pirate, poet, partial alliterist, parent, partner and pretender to various thrones. Most of his exploits are either exaggerated or blatantly false.