AI Capable of Estimating Biological Age through Self-Portraits
Holding a Mirror to Health: The FaceAge App
Meet FaceAge, a groundbreaking app developed by US scientists that gauges your biological age straight from a selfie. As reported by Liter.kz, this aptly named technology is detailed in The Lancet Digital Health.
Sure, everyone ages differently, thanks to genes and lifestyle choices. But the FaceAge app sorts it all out by evaluating your health status and estimated biological age. Once it's got that info, it offers practical advice on transforming your life for the better.
To get FaceAge up and running, researchers armed it with around 59,000 healthy selfies and 6,000 snapshots of cancer patients. The app calculated that folks with a "cancer" label were biologically 5 years older than their age on paper.
Here's the kicker: FaceAge helped doctors pinpoint better the short-term survival odds of cancer patients receiving palliative care. The researchers hinted that this tool could eventually help doctors and cancer patients make informed decisions about end-of-life care – but that's just the beginning. It's got applications far beyond cancer care.
The developers emphasized that FaceAge is still in its infancy, needing more photographs to refine its predictions. And guess what? The debut experiment only featured faces of Caucasian individuals. With time, FaceAge could morph into an early warning system for a wide range of health conditions.
The Power of Facial Markers
To put it briefly, FaceAge is a deep learning algorithm designed to guesstimate biological age and predict health outcomes based on facial images. Here's a glimpse of its capabilities in determining health status and early detection of health issues – particularly in various populations:
Accuracy Hurrah
FaceAge trumpets clinicians in predicting biological age and life expectancies, particularly in palliative care cases[1][2][4].
Training an Algorithm
FaceAge relies on nearly 59,000 healthy selfies to detect subtle aging markers like skin texture, bone structure, and facial symmetry[2][4].
Bumping into Health Issues
Testing FaceAge on over 6,000 cancer patients revealed that those who appeared older than their actual age had gloomier survival prospects[2][4].
However, it's worth noting that FaceAge's effectiveness across diverse populations could be a bit patchy due to potential data biases, skin variations, and cultural or environmental factors[1][2]. To enhance its performance, incorporating more diverse and inclusive training data is the way to go. Combining it with other health metrics will also fortify its predictive powers[4][5].
So, there you have it! FaceAge: your new crystal ball in the pocket, offering a sneak peek into your health and kicking off a health revolution. Just remember to take it with a grain of salt and consult medical professionals for the final word.
The FaceAge app, a pioneering piece of technology, uses artificial intelligence to gauge one's biological age from a selfie. To teach it to recognize health markers, the app was given thousands of healthy selfies and images of cancer patients. The Ronald Lapointe-led research team discovered that cancer patients appeared up to five years older than their chronological age. Moreover, this app aids doctors by predicting the short-term survival chances of cancer patients receiving palliative care. As the technology matures, it could serve as an early warning system for various medical-conditions.
