Whether detecting rising anxiety or managing a full-blown panic attack, the tech industry is offering an array of new tools designed to support mental health.
Scores of start-ups are to pitch their solutions at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, including Swiss firm Nutrix AG, which would be introducing cortiSense, a sensor which measures levels of cortisol to monitor stress.
A small cylindrical object with a thin strip at one end, cortiSense allows users to test and analyze their saliva directly — without having to spit into a tube and send it to a laboratory, Nutrix said. Results can be consulted in minutes via a mobile app.
Photo: Reuters
Up to now, to test your cortisol “you need to go to the hospital, or you need to send your samples,” Nutrix founder Maria Hahn said.
If users’ levels prove to be too high, Nutrix says it can put them in touch with health professionals to craft an appropriate response.
CortiSense could be a useful complement to other Nutrix monitors, such as gSense, which compiles data on sleep, weight, physical activity and glucose levels, Hahn said.
“It’s about empowering the user,” she said.
While the device would be available for purchase by individuals, Hahn said she expects it would find greater interest from health insurers or even companies — which could compile data on overall stress levels in an office or within a work team, for example, without divulging personal information.
“Providing this aggregated data to the company” might help it decide that “people just need some holidays,” she said.
Meanwhile, French firm Baracoda SA is presenting BMind, which it calls “the world’s first artificial intelligence [AI]-powered smart mirror for mental wellness.”
The device has an integrated camera that can help identify signs of stress or fatigue, and suggest the user take a moment to relax, view soothing images and listen to comforting music, Baracoda said.
Then there is CalmiGo, a small handheld device to be used in moments of panic. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing down the user’s heart rate and helping regulate emotions.
The goal was to “create products that people can take with them everywhere they go and use it in order to calm... down without being dependent on other people or on medication,” CalmiGo CEO Adi Wallach said.
The user places her mouth on the device, which looks like an asthma inhaler, then breathes at a pace indicated by a flashing light — a pace the company said is calculated using AI to work best for each individual.
The machine — of which 100,000 have been sold in the US — stimulates four of the five senses with its luminous signals, a physical vibration that also produces a sound, and soothing aromas that “detach you from an anxious state,” the company said.
Visitors to the CES might also meet Romi, a tabletop robot that MIXI Inc said “many in Japan use to ease their anxiety and loneliness.”
In a demonstration video, Romi responds to its owner, who returns frustrated from a wasted night of work, gently suggesting that she watch a movie to relax. It seems to work.
However, New York psychologist Julie Kolzet is skeptical of the ability of robots, or AI in general, to respond meaningfully to underlying causes of anxiety or depression.
“Maybe the more devices that pop up on the market, the more people will be interested in therapy,” she said.
Patients “want somebody to guide them,” Kolzet said. “They want to feel safe and validated, and I don’t think a robot can do that.”
This year’s CES runs from today through Friday.
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