“Plus, it gets the kid used to watching TV at an early age …”
UW News describes a UW CSE cellphone app, Bilicam, developed by Shwetak Patel’s students Lilian de Greef and Mayank Goel:
“Skin that turns yellow can be a sure sign that a newborn is jaundiced and isn’t adequately eliminating the chemical bilirubin. But that discoloration is sometimes hard to see, and severe jaundice left untreated can harm a baby.
“University of Washington engineers and physicians have developed a smartphone application that checks for jaundice in newborns and can deliver results to parents and pediatricians within minutes. It could serve as a screening tool to determine whether a baby needs a blood test – the gold standard for detecting high levels of bilirubin.”