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An AI smartwatch that detects seizures

2,036,147 views | Rosalind Picard • TEDxBeaconStreet

Every year worldwide, more than 50,000 otherwise healthy people with epilepsy suddenly die -- a condition known as SUDEP. These deaths may be largely preventable, says AI researcher Rosalind Picard. Learn how Picard helped develop a cutting-edge smartwatch that can detect epileptic seizures as they occur and alert nearby loved ones in time to help.

Every year worldwide, more than 50,000 otherwise healthy people with epilepsy suddenly die -- a condition known as SUDEP. These deaths may be largely preventable, says AI researcher Rosalind Picard. Learn how Picard helped develop a cutting-edge smartwatch that can detect epileptic seizures as they occur and alert nearby loved ones in time to help.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxBeaconStreet, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

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Get involved in SUDEP research and prevention.

Learn more about SUDEP and how to prevent it.

Donate to help prevent deaths caused by seizures and reduce the risk for SUDEP.

About the speaker

Rosalind Picard

Scientist, inventor, entrepreneur

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MIT Professor Rosalind Picard invents technologies that help people better understand emotion and behaviors that impact human health.

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Empatica's blog

Stories and experiences using wearable AI to help improve lives in epilepsy, and new research to reduce respiratory infections.

Picard, R.W., et al. | Neurology, 2017 | Article

"Wrist sensor reveals sympathetic hyperactivity and hypoventilation before probable SUDEP"

AI doesn't work alone. People need to be there for each other in a time of need. Patients and families should be told that SUDEP can happen minutes after a seizure, and if somebody is there to immediately stimulate, reposition or provide first aid, the person may have a better chance of survival. This is a short, tragic true story of where the AI worked, but the people had never seen this talk or been told about SUDEP.

Picard R.W., et al. | American Epilepsy Society, 2016 | Article

"Embrace, a wearable convulsive seizure detection and alert system: First performance report of a case study in real-life settings"

The annual meeting on epilepsy every December is filled with the latest research. Picard and team present their latest research here every year. This poster illustrates the first case study of a teen wearing Embrace for many months.

Onorati F., et al. | Epilepsia, 2017 | Article

"Multicenter clinical assessment of improved wearable multimodal convulsive seizure detectors"

For doctors, scientists and those who want to know if the AI inside this device really works when evaluated on gold-standard medical data in hospitals, here is the pivotal study.

MIT | Explore

"Affective Computing"

Read news articles about Picard's affective computing research at MIT.

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This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxBeaconStreet, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Discover the company that uses AI to improve lives.

Get involved in SUDEP research and prevention.

Learn more about SUDEP and how to prevent it.

Donate to help prevent deaths caused by seizures and reduce the risk for SUDEP.