Google Pixel 4 Face Unlock System Helps Researchers Spot Alzheimer's Disease: Here's How
The Google Pixel 4 series has been plagued with many problems, but it looks like researchers have found at least one use case for its Face Unlock system. A team from the University of California, San Diego (UC SD) is using the infrared sensor, arguably one of the smartphone's best features, to detect signs of Alzheimer's disease. This sensor, coupled with a dot projector, enabled the face to unlock. The same sensor is now used to record a person's pupillary response to specific tasks, allowing researchers to identify cognitive impairments. The Verge spoke to one of the team's researchers and he explained how it all works. The team identified human eyes, specifically the pupil (black dot in the center of the eye), as a measure of detecting Alzheimer's disease - a disease in which brain cells die, causing memory loss in the patient. Researchers recorded students' responses to specific tasks that allowed them to identify cognitive impairments via an app. These im