A software engineer has taken the DeepLens camera Amazon introduced in November 2017 and equipped it with artificial intelligence to help people with memory loss and dementia more easily recognize objects and people, CNBC reports.
Sachin Solkhan is the director of software engineering at Fidelity Investments, but in his free time, he wanted to use his technology expertise to help those in need. Using Amazon's DeepLens camera — a product similar to Google's Clips smart camera but designed for developers rather than consumers — he did just that.
Though Mr. Solkhan and Amazon haven't officially launched the new tool yet, Mr. Solkhan explained to CNBC how the device would work. The system would capture and store photos and names of a user's friends and family on Amazon's cloud. By recording interactions, the AI would eventually learn to recognize each person and alert the user. His hope is that one day, people suffering memory loss may be able to take the camera with them wherever they go.
With the DeepLens camera, developers are able to tinker with Amazon's advanced technology, like machine learning and AI, to think up new uses for the product.
"We see a lot of usage for machine learning from primary care to medical screening," Matt Wood, Amazon's general manager of deep learning and AI, told CNBC. "We're motivated to use [machine learning] to improve elder care, and care in general."
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