Huawei has partnered with medical research bodies IIS Aragon and DIVE Medical to launch Track AI, an AI-powered assessment that detect and diagnose early signs of visual impairment in children.
Image: WHO estimates 19million children are suffering with visual impairment across the world. Photo: Courtesy of kai kalhh/Pixabay.
Huawei said that the World Health Organization has estimated that 19 million children across the world are suffering with visual impairment, of which 70-80% cases are preventable or curable.
In addition, the children with visual impairments are remained undiagnosed for years in most cases, which results in more severe consequences on the vision, general development, educational and social opportunities.
DIVE Medical pediatric ophthalmologist Victoria Pueyo said: “For the past few years, we have been committed to developing a tool that will assess visual function in young children and to identify those with visual impairments.
“With Huawei supporting and powering DIVE through AI we are now able to work towards this goal. Our goal is to implement this technology globally and with our multi-ethnic approach we can cater to every type of visual impairment.”
The DIVE (Devices for an Integral Visual Examination) software that runs on the Matebook E is used to detect visual impairments in children. It monitors and tracks the gaze of each eye while the patient is looking at stimuli designed to test different aspects of visual function.
To identify potential indicators of visual impairments, HUAWEI P30 smartphone processes the data collected from the patients’ gaze pattern using the HUAWEI HiAI algorithm.
Huawei technology expert Peter Gauden said: “In the past, smartphones were not powerful enough to process complex AI based algorithms and data had to be sent to the cloud for processing. Communication to and from the cloud makes AI processing slow and is useless without a network.”
The Track AI initiative, with its HUAWEI P30 and HUAWEI HiAI technology, creates an easy-to-use, portable and affordable device to identify issues in children within short time as early as six months old.
Huawei said that it is aiming to empower individuals without training to help identify children that may have visual impairments in order to help them access treatment sooner.
Gauden said: “The new Track AI technology combines the very best in Huawei’s machine learning and on-device AI processing technology with concrete research and insights from IIS Aragon and DIVE Medical.
“Track AI is part of Huawei’s wider commitment to push the boundaries of what is humanly possible and use AI for good. Our goal for this project is to make it possible for parents and doctors in all corners of the world to detect visual impairments in a faster, easier, more efficient way through AI technology.”