There are mornings when you can tell you’re not feeling well just by looking in the mirror — but a new AI ‘mirror’ debuting this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) promises to tell you a whole lot more.
The product (effectively a 21.5-inch vertical tablet with a mounted camera) tracks over 100 health parameters by scanning blood flow under the surface of your face.
The device promises to detect signs of everything from high blood pressure, to fever symptoms, to depression or mental health risk, to 10-year stroke risk, to ‘facial skin age.’ But it can also warn you if it thinks you are about to die.
One telemedicine expert praised the device as ‘ideal for clinics, elder care homes.’
And the manufacturer hopes the device will help get people advanced warning for the ‘proactive’ medical attention they need, offering the device not just for homes, but retailers, gyms, schools, retirement homes, and pharmacies as well.
At the heart of the Anura MagicMirror is a powerful internal optical sensor which pools data for a cloud-based algorithm to analyze. The 21.5-inch vertical tablet with a mounted camera tracks over 100 health parameters by scanning blood flow just under the surface of your face’s skin
The Anura MagicMirror promises to detect signs of everything from high blood pressure or possible fever symptoms, to depression or mental health risk, to 10-year stroke risk, to ‘facial skin age.’ But it can also warn you if it thinks you are about to die
At the heart of the new device, the Anura MagicMirror by NuraLogix, is a powerful internal optical sensor which pools data for a cloud-based algorithm to analyze.
The sensor, NuraLogix’s patented Transdermal Optical Imaging (TOI) technology, uses a method already in use at hospitals, technically known as Photoplethysmography, to record changes in blood volume within the tiny ‘microvascular’ capillaries of facial tissue.
That blood-flow data is then sent to the company’s DeepAffex ‘Affective Ai’ platform, which ‘uses advanced signal processing and machine learning AI algorithms to calculate over 100 health parameters,’ according to the company.
But, NuraLogix CEO Marzio Pozzuoli was quick to tell Wired at CES that MagicMirror’s camera does not use any facial recognition technology.
Only blood flow data, Pozzuoli said, is sent to the cloud for AI analysis, while the video-feed that the device records to create your ‘reflection’ stays put locally.
Not everyone was relieved by these assurances, however, with a columnist for the Washington Times opining that, ‘as with all-things-AI, the potential for harm is right around the corner from the intended good.’
Regardless, the NuraLogix CEO said he anticipates that the MagicMirror will start out as a product for business clients, installed in places like gyms, pharmacies, clinic waiting rooms, or even at construction sites where fast health assessments can mean life or death.
But, eventually, Pozzuoli hopes to see the MagicMirror become a common home healthcare appliance.
Only blood flow data, NuraLogix CEO Marzio Pozzuoli said, is sent to the cloud for AI analysis, while the video-feed that the device records to create your ‘reflection’ stays put locally
One telemedicine expert praised the device as ‘ideal for clinics, elder care homes’ in an X post
| Vitals/Physical Indexes | Metabolic Health Risk Assessments | Mental Health | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blood Pressure | T2 Diabetes Risk Assessment | Mental Stress | |
| Cardiac Workload | Cardiovascular Disease Risk (10 yr) | Depression Health Risk | |
| Pulse Rate | Heart Attack Risk (10 yr) | ||
| Breathing Rate | Stroke Risk (10 yr) | ||
| Irregular Heart Rate | Hypertension Risk | ||
| Heart Rate Variability | Hypercholesterolemia | ||
| BMI | Hypertriglyceridemia | ||
| Body Shape Index | Fatty Liver Disease | ||
| Waist-to-Height Ratio | Morning Fasting Blood Glucose | ||
| Facial Skin Age | Hemoglobin A1C |
Pozzuoli, according to Wired, expects that a few measurements ‘will be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration this year, with more to follow.’
For all the good it might one day do, however, the MagicMirror is not always polite and does not always adhere to social niceties.
One Sun reporter reviewing the product at CES complained: ‘Highlights included the mirror telling me my ‘facial skin age’ is seven years older than I actually am.’
‘It also told me I need to work on reducing my mental stress.’
And even the company’s PR copy seems to acknowledge that MagicMirror’s unsparing grim commentary, a la the evil Queen’s magic mirror in Snow White, is part of the device’s long-term commercial appeal.
(‘Mirror, Mirror On The Wall,’ NuraLogix’s press release jokes, ‘Who Is The Healthiest Of Us All?’)
According to the NuraLogix website, the MagicMirror is not yet available for retail, but ‘Investigational Use Only.’
‘The performance characteristics of this product,’ the company said, ‘have not been established.’
