Take a peek at the phone for thirty seconds and a user would have already provided enough details to their phone to test the pulse rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, heart rate amplitude, blood pressure, tension level, and probably 15 other medical grade reliability measures.
Just imagine doing this 50 times a day.
And having the tests encircled your own medical AI engine to check you for any indicators of ill health, ready to let your doctor know if something appears out of the norm. Like higher temperatures, which could indicate a fever, the flu, or maybe Covid-19 as well.
This is part of the goal of Binah.ai, an Israeli health startup that employs high-end artificial intelligence and low-end cameras built into every one of our phones and laptops to constantly regulate wellness. Actually, the transportation equipment of the business acquires five vital signs. Another ten are in development, and ultimately the company says this will be around 20, including blood alcohol lev measurements.
Analyzing that blood flow through photoplethysmography (PPG), a software that dates back to 1938, Apple can monitor your heart rate. Fitbit is able to check your oxygen saturation. And Samsung will calculate some of the facets of the stress rates.
Maman mentions that instead of sending a light beam, they are actually analyzing the light reflection intensity that comes from the user’s cheeks to the camera lens and they can possibly do it on a smartphone, a laptop, a tablet, or even a smart TV. They have further clarified the concept saying that the method doesn’t even necessitate a super high-definition camera. 30 frames / second with a good quality processor will be able to gather the required data, which means that even an old or low-end smartphone will work, and even laptop webcams will be just fine.
Binah’s business model is to license the innovation, not to market it on its own. And technology is already being used by companies around the world, including Sompo, one of Japan’s largest insurance companies, which uses technology to monitor health, wellness, and depression. The Montreal hospital utilizes the same technology to monitor a patient’s health situation in an in-person making treatment for Coronavirus patients better and easier. All informed, Mom claims that 7 million people worldwide have Binah applications installed on their devices to assess various facets of their wellbeing.
Many potential clients include telemedicine providers who would be able to monitor a pulse, blood oxygen rates, and other vital indicators during a doctor’s appointment, making it far more feasible for a health care worker to properly identify a patient who is never been to the doctor’s office.
Blood pressure tracking is not yet available but has been patented by Binah. It is expected to have significant applications for heart patients and other health requirements.
Blood alcohol is yet another test that will be available soon on the application. According to him, it would be greatly beneficial for a transit company’s corporate app to guarantee that truck drivers are not heavily intoxicated before driving. Or for Uber or Lyft, which would help passengers to know that their drivers are not under the influence of any intoxication.
Wellness platforms may use the app, Maman says, to evaluate stress levels and offer guidance to clients or patients.
As a result, it is likely that health organizations would be able to understand whether a proportion of the population in a particular area is witnessing health fluctuations, say, the temperature rises and would be able to isolate pandemics and health crises much more quickly.
