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Mirror talks truth |
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Health
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Written by Peter Warren
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Saturday, 13 May 2006 |
Bought and published by Scotland on Sunday May 16, 1999
It’s halfway between Snow White and super science, the mirror that can tell whether you are ill.
The brain-child of the same team of scientists who came up with
Persona, the revolutionary contraceptive device that lets a woman know
whether she can conceive, the Diagnostic Mirror will use state of the
art technology to tell you what you may not want to know.
Using
cameras and microphones the mirror can pick up information on the state
of your health from skin colour, the size of your pupils, your voice,
heartbeat and can even tell your blood pressure if you brush your hand
against it.
What it cannot do is tell you how good looking you are but according to its makers that could come.
“Taking your picture and then comparing it against a database of the
best looking people in the world could be done with the technology
around at the moment but it’s not something we are considering,” said
Mike Pearson, joint owner of Pearson Matthews, which is working on the
mirror with an un-named development partner.
“Tthe technology to do what we want to do with the mirror is all in place now.
“What we are looking at is a system that can pick up breath, detect
skin colour, monitor your pupils, skin oxidisation and you use
sensitive microphone technology to pick up your heart-beat,” said
Pearson.
Computer technology built into the mirror including lab on a chip
techniques that can detect minute amounts of chemicals will then be
used to build a complete picture of an individual.
Instead of misting being an inconvenience, with the diagnostic mirror
it becomes a positive benefit as the system can then collect samples
for analysis on a range of complaints.
Built in cameras which can focus in on the pupil examine the back of
the retina, while linking the mirror to a set of scales equipped with
an infra-red communication system provides its computers with important
weight information.
Developments in microphone technology have seen the emergence of
directional systems from companies like the Hamilton-based Oticon,
which can pick up sound from considerable distances. Advances in
digital techniques also let the mirror screen out background noise and
focus on particular sounds. Other technology capable of detecting
stress in the voice produced by companies like the Israeli company
Makh-Shevet, can also alert the system to look for particular symptoms.
According to Pearson the mirror is a uniquely appropriate piece of
household furniture to use for medical diagnosis because of the state
of mind it generates.
“The mirror works very well because when you stand in front of it in
the morning you are already preparing yourself for a self-imposed
analysis. That concept is very powerful. You normally do it under
controlled lighting conditions with a mental attitude that this is the
time when you face you health.”
Computerised diagnosis is therefore a logical extension of the process,
said Pearson who sees the widespread adoption of household medical
diagnosis devices as part of everyday life in the next century.
“We are soon going to be seeing the development of the ‘worried well’
and the ‘interested well’ because of changes in the way we live. The
people who go to health centres are becoming increasingly interested in
monitoring and changing their bodies and providing them with the
devices to do will be logical.”
A concept already receiving attention in the US, with researchers in
many universities working on projects to develop home health monitoring
systems like the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology’s ‘Guardian
Angel’, a computer system under development for old people which will
both monitor health and alert relevant agencies in the event of a
problem being picked up.
A facility the diagnostic mirror will also offer, its on-board
computers having the capability, in the nicest possible way, to tell
you when it may be a good idea to make a trip to the surgery.
A surgery that itself will be changing as it adapts to the data being
generated by systems like the mirror, with Pearson predicting the rapid
emergence of medi-centres like those recently opened in Nottingham and
Kingston-on-Thames by the high street retailer Boots.
Using a computer disc created by the mirror will let a potential
patient take their vital data to an organisation of their choice
leading to the development of a sophisticated medical industry with
patients for the first time being able to take control of their health.
With the cost of private health care is now rising by 10% above the
rate of inflation, the inevitable result is that the industry itself
will push people to develop healthcare policies aimed at preventing
disease rather than treating it.
A trend towards personal responsibility fostered by both the current
Labour administration and its Conservative predecessor that innovators
like Pearson are hoping to tap into.
The greatest hurdle to the development of the system is public
attitudes. Current fears over database technology and attendant erosion
into civil liberties will have to be overcome for such diagnosis to be
possible.
A hurdle, which could delay adoption by many years, with the medical
community still unsure how to solve issues surrounding its attempts to
create a networked hospital system known as the NHS-Wide Net intended
to create the infrastructure for a national database.
“The technology to do this is not the issue, the issue is how people
are going to change and adapt. People adopt things because they can see
the benefit diagnostic devices like this let people have a pro-active
life-style.”
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