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Apple Reportedly Developing Sensors To Detect If You’re Depressed, Need A Break
By Ell Ko, 24 Sep 2021
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Image via Vividrange / Shutterstock.com
It’s clearer than ever that we need to keep health at the top of our priorities, and Apple appears to be developing its technology in accordance.
While it was reported before that there was a possibility AirPods could be used to track respiratory health and the Watch may comes with blood sugar monitoring features, the Wall Street Journal has divulged that the tech giant has its eyes set on detecting poor mental health.
Given the recent surfacing of reports showing Instagram’s detrimental effect on its users’ mental health, particularly that of teen girls, this news comes at pretty apt timing.
In collaboration with UCLA and the pharmaceutical company Biogen, Apple is working on two separate research projects. The UCLA partnership is termed ‘Seabreeze’ and focuses its research on depression and anxiety.
Meanwhile, the Biogen project is codenamed ‘Pi’ and is focused around “mild cognitive decline,” WSJ reports.
These projects will utilize sensor data to track things like mobility, physical activity, sleep patterns, and typing behavior, among others. The researchers hope that by tracking patterns related to these, they can form a set of signals to create algorithms.
It’s hoped that, in the future, can reliably detect if users are beginning to develop symptoms.
For ‘Seabreeze’, building the algorithm will reportedly involve data collection from iPhone cameras, keyboards, and microphones. If the user has an Apple Watch, data relating to movement, vital signs, and sleep will be taken into account too.
Facial expressions, speaking patterns, walking pace and frequency, and typing speed are some of the areas the researchers are studying. These findings will then be compared to results from a questionnaire investigating the individual’s emotions.
‘Pi’ is doing something similar, but the project’s basis apparently stems from a study done a few years ago which showed that 31 adults with some form of cognitive impairment tended to use their Apple products differently from a control group without the impairment.
It has been noted by Gizmodo that Apple has added a new feature to the Health app in iOS 15 that ties in perfectly to these projects: Walking Steadiness. While it was implemented to be able to detect if a user is at risk of suffering a serious fall in a 12-month period, it would lend itself to the research purportedly underway.
Although there’s no telling if the research will ever reach a public debut and a fully developed feature to be implemented in an upcoming software update, it looks promising as a widely beneficial feature.
Plus, it may prove to be more accessible to Apple’s customers. Almost everyone has a smartphone, which will be an iPhone in Apple’s case, but not everyone will own accessories such as AirPods or the Apple Watch.
In the same way as many physical illnesses, early detection of mental health conditions and a prompt to get it checked out professionally could help the user to receive treatment before it worsens.
[via The Wall Street Journal, image via Vividrange / Shutterstock.com]
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