Collaborating with two medical bodies, Huawei has deployed AI and smartphone technology designed to detect and diagnose early signs of visual impairment in children. The Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturer has teamed up with IIS Aragón, a medical laboratory in Spain, and Dive Medical to co-create Track AI, an AI-powered assessment that could help safeguard children’s eyesight. Compared to children with normal vision, those with visual impairment have different gaze patterns, and with the AI-powered software, it can accurately gather data on the gaze position during scientifically designed visual stimuli, according to Huawei. Such interpretation of this data can be challenging for non-specialist healthcare workers. Using AI, however, computers can be trained to identify abnormal gaze patterns for easier screenings and assisted diagnoses and speed up the process from diagnosis to management of the condition. To detect visual impairments, the Dive (Devices for an Integral Visual Examination) software runs on Huawei’s own Matebook E to monitor and track the gaze of each eye while the patient is looking at stimuli designed to test different aspects of visual function. The data collected from the patients’ gaze pattern is then processed on Huawei’s latest smartphone, the P30, using the Huawei HiAI algorithm to identify potential indicators of visual impairments. According to the company, with the Huawei P30 and Huawei HiAI technology, the Track AI initiative creates an easy-to-use, portable and affordable device to identify these issues in children as soon as possible and as early as six months old. “In the past, smartphones were not powerful enough to process complex AI-based algorithms and data had to be sent to the cloud for processing,” said Peter Gauden, technology expert at Huawei. “Communication to and from the cloud makes AI processing slow and is useless without a network.” “The new Track AI technology combines the very best in Huawei’s machine learning and on-device AI processing technology with concrete research and insights from IIS Aragon and Dive Medical,” he added. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 19 million children in the world have visual impairments, 70 to 80 per cent of which are preventable and curable. Furthermore, WHO has indicated that in most cases, these children would remain undiagnosed for years, resulting in more serious consequences with their vision, and general and social development. Less severe but easily prevented types of visual impairments are currently affecting 12.8 million children, the WHO statistics highlighted. “For the past few years, we have been committed to developing a tool that will assess visual function in young children and to identify those with visual impairments,” said Victoria Pueyo, a paediatric ophthalmologist at Dive Medical. “With Huawei supporting and powering Dive through AI, we are now able to work towards this goal. Our goal is to implement this technology globally, and with our multi-ethnic approach we can cater to every type of visual impairment.” In related news to Huawei, Belgium’s centre for cybersecurity has found no evidence that the equipment supplied by Huawei Technologies could be used for spying. The agency had initially been tasked with analysing the possible threat posed by Huawei, which supplies equipment to Belgian mobile operators Proximus , Orange Belgium and Telenet. “Until now we have not found technical indications that point in the direction of spying threat,” a spokesman for the agency said on Monday 15 April. “We are not providing a final report on the matter but are continuing to look into it.” In midst of all the Huawei controversy, the US said it will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures, making it more difficult for China’s Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks, according to sources. Officials from more than 30 countries will meet at the start of May (2-3) to agree on security principles for next-generation telecoms networks, said Robert Kahofer, chief of cabinet at Czech cybersecurity agency NUKIB. A US official familiar with the plan said the Prague meeting marks a strategic shift in how the US government plans to urge allies to drop Huawei and other 5G vendors in the future, which Washington believes pose a risk to national security, with the official describing the approach as “softer.”
China's Huawei has partnered with Spanish medical laboratory IIS Aragon and DIVE-Medical to create Track AI, an assessment tool to detect early symptoms of visual impairment in children. Track AI runs Devices for an Integral Visual Examination (DIVE) software on Huawei's Matebook E. The data gathered from individual eye assessments is sent to a P30 smartphone, where Huawei's HiAI algorithm assesses indicators of impairment. Between 70% to 80% of the world's more than 30 visually-impaired children have preventable or curable conditions, according to the World Health Organization.