The realm of digital health is thriving today, marked by an influx of innovative products, advancements in artificial intelligence, and fierce competition. However, during the 1990s, wearable technology was scarce, offering minimal real-time health insights. People would visit their doctors for blood tests and examinations, living with uncertainties between appointments.
In 1991, Rosalind Picard emerged as a formidable electrical engineer, recently completing her doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Eager to make her mark in technology, Picard had a vision of creating tools that would genuinely assist individuals. She embarked on designing computers and delved into understanding the workings of the human brain to enhance computer capabilities. Her goal was to develop an intelligent device capable of interpreting the world as humans do, placing particular emphasis on memory and attention. Initially, Picard was reluctant to associate her work with emotions, fearing it might detract from her credibility.
“I attempted to collaborate with men on this because I thought my career as a woman would suffer,” Picard recalls. “But that didn’t pan out. Instead, I endeavored to apply rigorous engineering methodologies, which led me to explore various aspects we can gauge within the human body, connecting not only to emotional measurement but also its relationship with overall health.”
Professor Rosalind Picard establishes Empatica, Embrace, and Affectiva
After six years, Picard—an MIT professor and TED speaker—authored a transformative book on affective computing, paving the way for an entire discipline centered on systems and technologies capable of recognizing, interpreting, and simulating human emotions.
These connected devices span desktops and laptops to smartphones and wearables, Picard explains, as she leads the affective computing research group at MIT Media Lab.
From this burgeoning field, Picard co-founded two companies. One, Affectiva, is dedicated to creating technology that gauges human emotions. “The mission behind Affectiva was to assist companies seeking our technology to do so in a transparent and ethical manner,” she shares. “I was against the idea of companies monitoring individuals without their consent…. Therefore, we strived to develop solutions that truly enhance people’s lives.”
Her other venture, Empatica—meaning “empathetic” in Italian—focuses on producing top-tier medical devices and FDA-cleared smartwatches. It also contributes valuable data for clinical research and advancements in health science. Among Empatica’s offerings, the Embrace is noteworthy as the first AI-based smartwatch granted FDA approval for monitoring seizures.
“Many existing apps can detect shaking but often have high false alarm rates,” Picard points out. “In contrast, by employing AI in Embrace, we’ve received FDA clearance for both sensitivity in accurately identifying seizures and for maintaining a low false alarm rate.… The data quality is [also] superior to what you’d obtain from the best consumer smartwatches, as our focus lies in providing clinical-grade data rather than running numerous applications from your wrist…. Our priority is medical-quality information.”
The varied uses of the Empatica Embrace smartwatch
While the Embrace is available directly to consumers with a physician’s prescription, EmbracePlus serves as a more specialized device utilized in hundreds of clinical studies, catered to researchers, healthcare professionals, hospitals, and academic institutions. For instance, if a pharmaceutical company employs EmbracePlus in a drug trial, it can more accurately assess the medication’s effectiveness and any potential side effects impacting participants’ sleep or activity levels. EmbracePlus quantitatively captures behavioral data, stress-related factors, and other physiological indicators crucial for clinical trials, allowing pharmaceutical researchers to refine their conclusions.
The original Embrace wearable for consumers proves particularly beneficial for addressing epilepsy. Currently, 1 in 26 individuals in the United States will face an epilepsy diagnosis during their lifetime, according to Picard. Together with her team, she developed the Embrace to gather data, recognizing a lack of funded research in epilepsy, and aiming to enhance the scientific understanding of the condition. Their findings have been utilized by institutions like the Mayo Clinic to improve seizure forecasting, and Picard speculates that future insights may also enable forecasting of migraines and panic attacks.
Notably, seizures can occur during sleep, making Embrace essential for individuals with epilepsy. “If someone experiences several seizures while asleep without awareness, that can be life-threatening,” she explains. “How can you inform your doctor about occurrences if you’re not conscious? The devices provide insights into whether such seizures are transpiring. This knowledge is crucial for both health and peace of mind.”
Rosalind Picard’s innovative technology is transforming digital health
Apart from epilepsy, Picard’s emotionally intelligent wearable offers insights into a person’s overall health, including physical activity, heart rate, stress levels, and sleep patterns. She emphasizes that restoring disrupted sleep is one of the most critical aspects of enhancing mental and physical well-being. The information gathered by Embrace aids in bridging memory gaps during doctor visits since it continuously tracks data.
“In the realm of digital health, I am truly thrilled about the potential of continuous, long-term data,” she expresses. “We are eager to play a role in this transformation. I believe this is just the beginning, with the capability to revolutionize health care as we know it.”
Picard is enthusiastic about the data collected by these AI-enabled wearables, as it holds the promise of being preventive in mental health, rather than merely reactive. Through this technology, she and her team aim to aid individuals in enhancing their mental well-being and accumulating their “positive emotion bank account” ahead of significant life stressors, thus helping to prevent breakdowns. Moreover, she is making a genuine difference in people’s lives.
“My greatest fulfillment arises when I learn that our technology not only enhances lives,” she states, “but in some instances, has even saved a life.”
