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Summary
- X, the Moonshot Factory, has fallen short of its expected goal while researching on depression and anxiety.
- The research findings and newly developed tool are available in open source for mental health researchers.
- Mental health experts did not reciprocate well to the tools and techniques developed by the team at X.
Alphabet’s X, the Moonshot Factory, recently published a new blog post, detailing the findings of its mental health project called Project Amber.
X, Google’s sister company, is a semi-secret research and development facility and organisation operating out of California, USA. It has been working on Project Amber, an early-stage mental health project, for more than last three years.
X had started the work on Project Amber with original goal of finding a biomarker for depression, however, the results were not fruitful. Nevertheless, the team of neuroscientists, machine learning researchers, hardware and software engineers and med-tech product experts have come up with a portable, low-cost, EEG. The technology and research findings are now available in the open-source for the mental health research community.
World Mental Health Day falls on October 10, and this year around that day, the conversations related to mental health were observed very prominently on social media. Experts believe that the team at X chose the right time to present their studies in the public forum.
The blog post mentioned that poor mental health is a significant and continuously growing problem worldwide. In 2017, the World Health Organization predicted that about 322 million people globally suffer from mental health problems of depression, and 264 million people suffer from anxiety. The coronavirus pandemic made the situation worse with increasing problems related to mental health, causing psychological distress worldwide.
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Image Source: © Kalkine Group 2020
Finding a biomarker for depression:
The team at X started to find answers to the questions on finding objective measurement of depression. They tried to make brain waves easy to measure and interpret just as we commonly do for blood glucose. They intended to integrate cutting-edge machine learning techniques with existing technology and measure the electrical activity in the brain. The method is referred to as electroencephalography (EEG). The team at X wanted to bring the solution which would have created a revolution by bringing EEG devices out of labs and make it available widely for doctors and counsellors and psychiatrists.
Their final prototype Amber can now be used to collect essential data from the brain, which can help many health researchers. Project Amber also worked with team DeepMind to create a software which will help the users interpret the EEG data easily.
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Perception of healthcare experts:
The team of Project Amber expressed concerns as the healthcare experts provided them with “lukewarm reception”. The blog said people did not reciprocate to the idea of being labelled as depressed by a machine. The technique was, however, received positively as an in-home monitoring tool. Unfortunately, Project Amber could not accomplish its original goal.
The team was set out to find a single biomarker for depression and anxiety. The group commented on the same saying that it is unlikely that such a technique exists as mental health is a complicated aspect to investigate. However, there is also an opportunity in this space to deliver better measurement technology.
Way Forward for Project Amber:
The team at X has wrapped up its ambitious Project Amber. They have made hardware and software available in the open-source so that mental health researchers can take forward the research. The patents and applications are listed pledging free use.
In addition to it, X is also donating 50 assembled Amber prototype devices to one lab. The researchers globally will be able to use the tool and technique, especially in low-income countries and underrepresented groups.
