CES: New AI-powered facial recognition system reads vital signs

LAS VEGAS: Hitoshi Imaoka has been working in the facial recognition industry for about 20 years but with the advancement of artificial intelligence, he saw new opportunities for his field.

With his parents now 80 and Japan facing an aging society, Imaoka sought to combine AI with facial recognition in a new system to take vital signs for elderly individuals.

It's a way to help provide care that is easy and can be used to share health information remotely, he said.

"I think it's probably difficult for an elderly to wear a device like a smart watch. So we wanted to create a system that can examine people's health status just by the look of their faces, and that's why we are exhibiting it here," Imaoka, a fellow with IT and network technologies company NEC, told Reuters at CES2024 in Las Vegas, where his face and facial parts monitoring system won a CES 2024 Innovation Award in Artificial Intelligence.

The system works through a smartphone. The user opens the system and looks into the camera.

From there, it takes as little as 10 seconds or as long as 60 seconds for the image recognition AI technology to analyze pupil movements and facial patterns to take several measurements, including pulse rate, oxygen levels, and respiratory rate.

"(The system) measures pulse rates from the blood vessel information which is gathered based on the blood flow on people's faces. And it also measures people's respiratory rate by reading the movement of the chest," Imaoka said.

Imaoka said they hope to add other measurements like stress levels and focus ability as they continue to develop the system.

NEC plans to release the system later this year.

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