Ural Federal University: UrFU Scientists Develop a Unique Child Development Tracker
The project of Ural scientists to identify the developmental risks of children under one year old reached a new level. The Child Development Tracker project was awarded at the 13th season of the UrFU Accelerator at the Innoprom-2021.
Now specialists from the team of the Child Development Tracker project are working on the mobile application with a built-in system for automatic recognition of movement disorders in infants. The work of the Ural scientists’ system is based on artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies. The team wants to make this sophisticated technology available to parents: it will be possible to evaluate the baby’s movements by filming a ten-minute video on a mobile phone.
“For 5 years, our team has been researching the development of the brain and psyche of babies. We noticed that parents would like to have a convenient and accessible tool for assessing the development of a child. This is how the idea of creating an online platform came about. The first step was to create a website where a parent can fill out a checklist of the child’s basic skills, get information about what to pay special attention to in order to contact a specialist in time, “said a researcher at the Ural Federal University’s Brain and Neurocognitive Development Laboratory, the author of the project Ekaterina Suleimanova.
According to her, the sooner it is possible to identify the pathology in a child, the more opportunities for treatment and rehabilitation.
“On the Internet, you can find a lot of information about the development of children, their communicative and motor behavior, but parents lack an accessible and scientifically grounded methodology with which to track deviations in the development of a child. Our methodology is based on the latest scientific developments and world standards, while it has no analogues in Russia, ”said project manager Ksenia Kunnikova.
The project development is being carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the City Perinatal Center and the Ural State Medical University, of which Ksenia Kunnikova is a member.
“The Child Development Tracker project is one of the key projects for the Ural NeuroNet Center. The project can be of great benefit to residents of small towns and remote settlements: in situations where there is no neurologist in the family’s place of residence, a mobile application and website will allow you to obtain the necessary information remotely, then parents will be able to send it to a specialist, ”said the director of the Ural NeuroNet Center Svetlana Pavlova.
The project took the 3rd place according to the results of the 13th season of the UrFU accelerator.
“This is one of the best projects of the season. The team worked together, the guys were very active, did all their homework and did even more than the mentors asked, ”said Elena Molchanova, director of the UrFU accelerator.