NIH-funded smartphone app uses AI to detect depression from facial cues

Depression may live in the brain, but scientists have developed a new smartphone app to detect the disorder by looking for clues on your face. MoodCapture uses AI to assess micro-changes to a person's face - such as their gaze, eye movement, and how the person tilted their head - to determine whether they were depressed. The app, which was funded by the National Institute of Health, takes pictures with the front-facing camera and sends an alert if it identified a trend in facial expressions by looking at the position of the participants' lips, eyes and the depression lines in their face. According to the study, MoodCapture was correct in identifying people with depression 75 percent of the time. MoodCapture identified if participant's had depressive symptoms based on their facial features, lighting, and background objects About eight percent of U.S. adults are diagnosed with depression each year, amounting to roughly 21 million Americans More research still needs to be conducted, but researchers said MoodCapture could be made available to the public as early as within five years.