Diagnosis via smartphone will soon become a reality
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Medicine does not trample on the spot, but it keeps pace with the times. There is a high probability that soon some medical professions will be replaced by gadgets that will be able to diagnose diseases.
To date, there are already applications that are able to analyze the content of subcutaneous fat, determine BMI, measure the pulse and blood pressure. What can we expect in a few years?
Scientists argue that computer technology will make diagnostics no worse than medical specialists: the main thing is to get enough information into the program.
Specialists from the Australian University of Macquarie (Sydney) have offered a face recognition program for assessing the health status of more than 270 volunteers. The study was very entertaining and successful. "We have devised a program that can fully describe the patient's health, based only on the analysis of the characteristics of his face. This is another proof that a human face can signal the physiology and health of the body, "explains the head of the experiment, Jan Stephen.
The project received many encouraging reviews, but there are many skeptical critics. Perhaps such an application is a step towards progressive diagnostics, which excludes human errors and errors. But it is also possible that this is just a cool mobile program. What was the work of scientists? Professor Stephen and his colleagues took photos of more than 270 patients of different nationalities. These photos were specified in the settings of a special computer program. Among the volunteers were representatives of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
At first, scientists tried to determine with the help of the new program such indicators of the patient's health status as blood pressure, body mass index and percentage of subcutaneous fat in the body. The program liked the results of the program, and they continued their experiment. It was decided to compare the capabilities of artificial intelligence and the average person. Scientists made changes in the appearance of patients - one was a facelift, and another was applied make-up. Thus, experts hoped to "deceive" the program. It turned out that the human brain functions almost the same way as the intellect, modeled on a computer. They both focus on the same health indicators, assessing the appearance and face of a person.
"The results of the experiment indicate that the human brain, passing through the stages of evolution, has developed special ways of processing data on the health status of other people by their appearance. Such a mechanism helps to isolate from the general crowd of diseased subjects in order to build appropriate relationships - for example, to stay away from them, "explains Professor Stephen. The results of the project scientists published in the pages of Frontiers in Psychology.
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