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Apple is developing a system aimed at enabling smartphones to judge whether their users are depressed based on typing habits, sleep patterns, and a panoply of additional characteristics and habits, according to a new report.
Pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc. and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) are spearheading the project according to the unnamed sources and documents related to the project described by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Researchers, who have codenamed the effort “Seabreeze” at UCLA and “Pi” at Biogen, are looking to enable multiple Apple products to make the determination, including the company’s watch product and its iPhone, by assessing users with the camera, audio sensors, and their typing motions. “Data that may be used includes analysis of participants’ facial expressions, how they speak, the pace and frequency of their walks, sleep patterns, and heart and respiration rates,” the report specified. “They may also measure the speed of their typing, frequency of their typos and content of what they type, among other data points.”
“If the research finds that any of that data correlates with relevant mental-health conditions, the hope is to turn those signals into an app or feature that could warn people they might be at risk and prompt them to seek care,” the sources said, though they did not specify whether such a feature would be voluntary.
The news is the latest to emerge out of the company’s effort to get more involved in the health industry, an initiative that CEO Tim Cook has pushed since taking over in 2011 following the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
“I believe, if you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, ‘What was Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind?’ it will be about health,” Cook told CNBC’s Jim Cramer in a 2019 interview.
News of the plan comes just weeks after Apple drew headlines for announcing that it would slow down designs to begin scanning its users’ photos for illicit material. The company said in August that it intended to begin scanning photos for child abuse material and alerting law enforcement to positive matches, but after widespread outrage, said this month it had “decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features.”
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