American researchers seem to have found an interesting public health use for the Pixel 4. Google’s smartphone promises exciting advances in screening for neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s disease.
Will Google’s Pixel 4 get a new life? Hope is allowed, you will find out why. the flagship Google 2020 unfortunately did not have the expected success when it was released with its small autonomy problems, but embarked with it a fairly innovative sensor system for its time – Soli. The most surprising thing is that these sensors now allow the smartphone to contribute to the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.
An unexpected scenario
This curious use comes to us from a group of American researchers from the DigitalHealth Lab in San Diego. These scientists who study diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease had, through their director Edward Wang, the idea of using Google’s smartphone to help in the early detection of this disease.
Alzheimer’s disease (or a related disease) could affect around 1,200,000 people in France with only 750,000 cases diagnosed. After 65 years, it concerns approximately twice as many women as men and affects 23% of the population after 80 years according to the BEH public health France.
Those affected develop, among other things, memory loss that disrupts their daily lives. Early detection of this disease can, however, slow down the progression of symptoms. At this point, you are probably wondering: what does it have to do with Google’s Pixel 4? Slowly, we’re getting there.
How it works ?
These researchers explain that our eyes, or rather the reaction of our eyes to specific tasks, can serve as an indicator of neurological health via a specific element: our pupils. Their size, when we perform certain actions, tells us a lot about our state of mental health and the connections between different regions of our brain. Their measurement therefore sometimes makes it possible to detect certain cognitive disorders earlier.
The device to place on the smartphone to perform your own eye exam yourself // Source: The Verge
The device to place on the smartphone to perform your own eye exam yourself // Source: The Verge
This is where the Pixel 4 comes in with the possibility, thanks to its infrared front sensors, of offering a means of carrying out a ” examwith his own eyes via an accessory placed on the phone.
Infrared technology makes it possible, among other things, to offer better examination visibility, for example when a patient has dark irises whose color can be confused with that of the pupil. He is then asked to perform a memory test by placing the sensor in front of his eyes to see their reaction.
Human eyes under normal light // Source: The Verge
The same eyes, this time under infrared light // Source: The Verge
The use of this type of sensor is being studied here and could in the future help doctors by allowing each patient to carry out their own tests at home using their smartphone. These patients would then be referred to specialists if it turns out that there is a probable doubt about the measures sent. It would not be an infallible total examination, but a potentially valuable aid in the early detection of the disease.
These types of measurements are usually done on very expensive machines that can cost up to $10,000. Conversely , today, nearly 2/3 of the world’s population have a smartphone. The omnipresence of this technology is therefore a definite advantage in allowing everyone to protect themselves against this type of pathology.
A possibility reserved only for the Pixel 4?
We are told here that this smartphone was chosen for its infrared sensors and not the radio waves specific to Soli. We are not told if other smartphones with this type of facial recognition technology, such as iPhones with Face ID for example, could also provide this type of measurement.
The lastflagshipAs of Google, the Pixel 6, for its part, has abandoned these IR sensors. This is just one example of what our smartphones could provide as information about our health. Other useful uses could one day emerge to warn us more quickly and better protect us.
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