Samsung has announced some technological advancements which could allow its phones and watches to warn about early signs of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.
In a blog post, the South Korean tech giant said its researchers have “developed digital biomarker technology that tracks changes in cognitive function by analyzing multimodal data from smartphones and wearables – including app usage, typing speed, messaging patterns, call frequency, sleep and voice.”
The Galaxy maker elaborated on this approach in its post -
“Recalling and repeating short sentences can evaluate short-term memory-related brain regions, while assessing speech fluency and accuracy reveals the state of language ability. Likewise, the regularity and variety of app and messaging use, along with call frequency, can offer insights into social networks and the brain’s executive functions.
In short, the study demonstrated that brain regions responsible for language and short-term memory — typically impaired by Alzheimer’s disease — can be assessed through voice data. The findings also indicate that declines in social and behavioral abilities are associated with patterns of app use, messaging and call frequency.”
Samsung says it’s continuing to develop the tech for improved accuracy and validation. Nevertheless, this could be a potentially life-changing addition to Galaxy devices.
