‘Horrifying’ beauty mirror with artificial intelligence began to predict the date of death

A terrifying AI beauty mirror predicts when you’ll die, your risk of heart attack and other chronic diseases by analyzing the blood on your face. The tablet and camera monitor blood flow beneath the surface of your face. The algorithm used by MagicMirror can tabulate more than 100 health parameters based on circulatory data, including diabetes risk, fever, mental stress and more.

There are mornings when you can tell you’re not feeling well just by looking in the mirror, but a new artificially intelligent mirror debuting this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) promises to tell you much more, writes Daily Mail.

The device (essentially a 21.5-inch vertical tablet with a camera attached) tracks more than 100 health parameters by scanning blood flow beneath the surface of your face. The gadget promises to detect signs of everything from high blood pressure to fever symptoms, depression or mental health risks, from a 10-year risk of stroke to “facial skin aging”. But it can also warn you if it thinks you’re about to die, the Daily Mail notes.

One telemedicine expert praised the device as “ideal for clinics, nursing homes.”

And the manufacturer hopes the device will help alert people ahead of time to the “proactive” medical care they need, offering the device not just for the home but also for retail, gyms, schools, nursing homes and pharmacies.

At the heart of the new device is a powerful internal optical sensor that aggregates data for analysis using a cloud-based algorithm.

As reported by the Daily Mail, NuraLogix’s patented transdermal optical imaging (TOI) technology uses a technique already used in hospitals, technically known as photoplethysmography, to record changes in blood volume in the tiny “microvascular” capillaries of facial tissue.

This blood flow data is then sent to the company’s DeepAffex “Affective Artificial Intelligence” platform, which, according to the company, “uses advanced signal processing and AI machine learning algorithms to calculate more than 100 health parameters.”

But NuraLogix CEO Marzio Pozzuoli was quick to say that the MagicMirror camera does not use any facial recognition technology.

According to Pozzuoli, only the blood flow data is sent to the cloud for analysis by artificial intelligence, while the video stream that the device records to create your “reflection” remains local.

However, not everyone was relieved by these assurances, with a columnist for The Washington Times opining that “as with everything related to artificial intelligence, potential harm is just around the corner from the intended good.”

Despite this, NuraLogix’s CEO said he expects MagicMirror to begin being released as a product for business customers, installed in places such as gyms, pharmacies, clinic waiting rooms or even construction sites where a quick health assessment can mean life or death.

But ultimately, Pozzuoli hopes that MagicMirror will become a common home medical device.

Pozzuoli, according to Wired, expects several measurements “to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration this year, with more to follow.”

However, despite all the benefits it could one day bring, MagicMirror is not always correct and does not always adhere to social norms. Thus, a Sun reporter reviewing the product complains: “Highlights included a mirror telling me my ‘facial age’ was seven years older than I actually am. It also told me I needed to work on reducing mental stress.”

And even the company’s promotional video seems to acknowledge that the MagicMirror’s relentlessly dark commentary, a la the wicked queen’s magic mirror in Snow White, is part of the device’s long-term commercial appeal. (“My mirror, tell me,” jokes the NuraLogix press release, “Who is the healthiest in the world?”)

According to the NuraLogix website, MagicMirror is not yet available for retail sale, but is for research use only. “The performance characteristics of this product,” the company said, “have not been established.”