Treating Alzheimer's with Skin Cells, Thermal Cameras and Calorie Counting and Future Digital Displays
April 18
This week we look at a new potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease that uses stem cells found in our skin. We improve the accuracy of the count of our calorie expenditure at the gym via a thermal camera. We examine a new type of digital display that may open the way for a range of new applications. Finally we catch up with some of the recently released AI tools that allow us to create more with less.
Using Skin Cells to treat Alzheimer's
Sydney based startup, Skin2Neuron is using a skin cell derived neuroprecursor to help reverse age related memory deficits, rescue depleted synapses and restore brain network function. The idea is to target the ultimate cause of dementia; the lost neurons and synapses.
The process uses stem cells derived from a patients hair follicles on the skin. There is a specialized niche within the human hair follicle that has exceptional neurogenic potential. These are known as Human Follicle derived Neuroprecursors (HFN). HFN need no genetic modifications and only develop into neurons when injected into the brain.
Trials have been carried out in dogs that are already suffering from dementia. The canine brain is very similar in structure to the human brain.
The HFN are injected directly into the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center and the first area to be devastated by Alzheimer's. About 15% of companion dogs develop a dementia syndrome very similar to human dementia. In the trial, dementia was reversed in half the dogs and 80% had a clinically meaningful improvement.
Future steps will be large animal trials then human trials. It is hoped that the treatment may have application in Parkinson’s Disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. (Thanks to the readers that insisted that I include this story in the newsletter).
Thermal Cameras for Accurate Calorie Estimates
The estimates made by smartphones, watches and exercise equipment are only that, wild estimates. Even when the devices have significant amounts of personal health data the estimates are rarely accurate. The problem is if you think you expended 500 calories at the gym and then consume those calories, you are most likely putting on weight and wasting the gym workout.
A team at Carnegie Mellon University and the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar have developed a system where an inexpensive thermal camera can improve accuracy substantially. The error margin was reduced from 40% using a smartwatch to under 6%.
Monitoring respiration is the most accurate measure of calories burned. The team used the thermal camera to monitor expiration of hot air. They were also able to measure inhaling results by using the thermal camera to observe evaporation around the lips and nostrils.
Combining respiration data with heart rate gave a measure of energy expenditure. Ideally a measure of CO2 expenditure is also needed. We don’t have a way to do this with a phone or wearable however a thermal camera can measure body temperature. Adding body temperature to the algorithm allows the error rate to be reduced to 5.8%.
Currently it takes the thermal camera about 40 seconds to make the required measurements. The goal is to reduce this to the time it takes to check your watch. Don’t be surprised if phone and watch manufacturers add cheap thermal cameras to future product updates.
Future Digital Displays
A team at Linkoping University in Sweden have developed a digital display that can react to touch, light, fingerprints and the user’s pulse. The displays are made of perovskite which is a crystalline material that has excellent light absorption and emission capabilities.
Currently digital displays can only display information. To become a multifunction display a variety of sensors needs to be added. This new screen removes that need. In addition the screen can act as a solar panel and recharge the phone when exposed to light. This will be particularly useful for devices such as smartwatches which spend most of the day time exposed to light and not being actively used. Battery life should be able to be extended or smaller batteries used.
The current version of the new screens are only stable for a hew hours before the LEDs go out. This needs to be extended significantly however once this is done (sometime over the next decade) a screen with a much wider range of functions will herald a new era in applications, particularly around health.
AI Models
There are new AI models being released daily. Far too many to describe or even to try out. Here are a few updates that you may find interesting.
Sora
Sora is the Open AI video creation tool that has not yet been released to the public. Demonstration videos have been released and wowed most viewers (there were multiple interesting errors so it is not ready for commercial release). OpenAI gave a group of 8 film directors access to the model to see what they could create. You can find the videos here.
I felt that the most relevant quote from the directors about their use of Sora was from Paul Trillo:
“Sora is at its most powerful when you’re not replicating the old but bringing to life new and impossible ideas we would have otherwise never had the opportunity to see.”
Whilst many will use AI to replicate what they are currently doing more cheaply, the truly creative will use AI to create new things that were previously impossible. That is the difference between labor replacement and labor augmentation that we spoke about last week.
Suno
Suno is a music creation AI. In less than 60 seconds it can create a song (2 mins) in any style based upon a short prompt. I created a song about a group of blokes that I know who sit around sharing their wisdom at the gym every day. They call themselves “The Table of Knowledge”. You can hear the song here.
Image Creation
A couple of new image generators that you might like to try are Krea and Leonardo. Finally for any aspiring writers that want to publish their graphic novels or comics Lore Machine will auto generate artwork based upon your story. I have written a couple of stories that I am in the process of generating artistic content. I will share a link once I have the work completed.
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
If you have any questions or comments please comment below.
I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.
Till next week.