I just got a peek at the future and it is a bit scary
Recently, I have been talking with the CEO of a very interesting Israeli start up. His company has developed a way of getting vital signs just using the camera from a smartphone. Right now they can get heart rate, blood oxygen, heart rate variability (which correlates with stress), respiratory rate, and soon, blood pressure. I was amazed that you can get all this info just by looking at the skin of the face. I believe this will be very helpful in telemedicine.
I started to think about what these kinds of capabilities potentially mean. The combination of smart phones with amazing power and IA, will make it possible not only to monitor vitals signs, but understand the subjective space of a person. We will be able to tell if people are excited or bored. If they are truthful or lying. If they are attracted or repelled by someone. The list goes on an on. I can only imagine the add on’s for Zoom telling you that the person that is speaking is lying for instance.
Sorry, I have been ignoring this blog. I am deep into the editing of my book. It should be published in September. Use this link if you want to be notified when it will be available.
Two Thirds Done 
More than a bit scary, very scary. Today a smartphone camera, tomorrow all the surveillance cameras, the “alertness” cameras in vehicles, etc. China must be loving this.
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Scary mostly for the unobservant, I suspect. Males are usually easy to read, except for the few with reality distortion fields and they are rare, at least in my circles. ConArtists will love it. Political interviews will be more irrelevant than they are now. In short, sounds like a Trekkie TriCorder that various groups have been trying to develop for decades. This assumes that the company is correct in their assessment of the technology, which must be mostly based on extreme image processing. Perhaps also intensive audio processing with very advanced microphones. Is such technology plausible and affordable ? If it becomes so, I suspect the nagging classes will have a field day, right up to their first full length mirror.
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Thanks for your comment. The technology to do all this on available on any recent smartphone. However, doing some of this in the context of video chat is a bit difficult with respect to physiological signals. However, it is very easy to read micro gestures.
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Avram, OK, now I find it scary
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Thannks for posting this
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