This new technology promises to detect changes in users’ health, as well as measure variables such as blood oxygen and pulse.
Smartphones are used for more and more things thanks to the great versatility offered by their components and the applications with which they are used. Photography is one of the areas that has advanced the most in this sense, today it is even possible to change the faces of friends so that everyone turns out well.
One of the next great advances in this sense could be that the mobile phone’s camera itself is capable of tracking the health status of users. This technology is already in the development phase and could arrive as early as 2024, although there is no confirmed date for this.
The Japanese company NEC has revealed information about this face monitoring system. It would be able to detect early signs of possible health problems using the mobile’s front camera to carry out a visual analysis that would not take more than a minute.
Detect changes in the face
Some technological devices such as smartwatches, smart rings, activity bracelets or mobile phones have a lot of potential in offering the measurement of certain types of user health data. To this day all wearables They integrate the possibility of measuring the heart rate, and even the blood oxygen of the people who wear them, and this allows them to be more aware of their own health. In the past, smartphones with pulse sensors have already been seen, but The next step in your measurement skills could go beyond this dataand without the need for an external device.
It would be thanks to the Face and Facial Parts Monitoring System that NEC has presented. This could be able to detect early signs of some abnormality in the state of health. You would only need the front camera of the device, which you would use to do a combined analysis of eye movement and pupil response, both involuntary reactions of the eye muscles. Among the variables that the company claims it can accurately measure are breathing and blood oxygen rate, and even pulse, just by looking at the face of the user in question.
These analyzes would not take up much of the user’s time, as they would only take 10 to 60 seconds. In addition, the entire process would be carried out completely securely, guaranteeing the user’s privacy through the use of biometric authentication to carry out certain actions in the app. After having completed the entire process, the user would first be shown an indicator of whether everything is going well or if there are any signs why the system thinks they should go to the doctor. After this first indicator, quite clear, you could also see the analysis of the different variables, displayed in graphs in the purest style of smart watch and bracelet applications.
Project in development
The company’s own page states that the design and functions of this software are subject to possible changes, since it is still in development. Among the possible problems of this software could be the way to address the possible differences between the cameras of different mobile phones and how this could affect the recognition of the algorithm. Surely, a requirement of this software may be to have a certain minimum resolution, as well as sufficient lighting to be able to properly examine each person’s face.
This type of software responds to the growing interest among users about their health, and the mobile phone, a device that practically everyone uses, can be a great way to make these measurements more accessible. Although, always, if it does not have the reliability of a medical device, it must be taken into account that this is indicative data, and that it does not replace the measurement that a doctor can make of these variables.
The launch date of this solution, according to the NEC itself, would be during 2024 or perhaps even later, precisely because it is still in an early research phase. Therefore, we will have to wait to see if this technology ends up materializing with sufficient reliability. It would also remain to be seen how the company materializes this software and how it turns it into a profitable project, since it is not clear if it could become an app, or rather an addition that some companies carry in their smartphones natively.
