At the age of 19, Kansas resident Erin Smith designed and created a technology that can detect early signs of Parkinson’s disease. After watching a video of Michael J. Fox late into his Parkinson’s diagnose, she noticed his facial expressions, smiles and laughs specifically, seemed distant. She suspected that this face masking, or hypomimia, was common to the disease, so she consulted clinicians and caregivers who confirmed her suspicions.
This invention, FacePrint, tracks facial expression over time to determine if there is a rise in hypomimia in a suspected Parkinson’s patient. Smith’s creation uses AI to collect data from the images it scans, advancing diagnoses for Parkinson’s and other neural diseases by months and potentially years. With funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation and various pharmaceutical companies, she ran tests with FacePrint using control groups of non-Parkinson’s volunteers, comparing the scans and results with diagnosed patients. She trained the algorithm after running many experiments to more accurately process the footage it captures, and therefore refine diagnoses. Her invention has held a 95% accuracy rate for spotting early-onset Parkinsons and a 93% accuracy rate for detecting early signs of other neural diseases (Chapman, 2022).
While her refining of this technology has been successful in detecting neural disease, a feat on its own, Smith seeks to help improve the care of patients with this tool in the future, perhaps through drug and disease-modifying therapeutic development.
Erin Smith innovated in an incredibly powerful and, for me, unexpected way. I have not heard of a technology of this kind, let alone one created by a teenager. Smith is inspiring to me in how she made a unique observation and entered a niche industry where she could create impact for a group of people in need. Her tenacity in addressing a very prevalent problem is admirable and impressive.
Young Inventor Honored for App to Detect Disease in Facial Expression
Wow, this is an incredible story. I have also never heard of this technology and could never imagine developing such an impactful technology at such a young age. It is incredible to hear how Erin was able to recognize a facial characteristic of the disease and then created a technology that can also recognize those facial characteristics. That is truly incredible. Erin seems like such an amazing person and these stories are truly so inspiring. Great job!
This is a great use of AI! It’s crazy to imagine how AI can be used in the medical field. I feel like this is just the tip of the iceberg. Like how Thiel described, AI doesn’t take away jobs. Instead, when we collaborate with it, it makes us so much better. How Erin utilizes AI is a great example of this, and she is using it for a great cause. It’s exciting to see how this technology will evolve and help doctors become better. Great post!