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MyFiziq is working on a selfie app that predicts if your body fat will make you sick
Health & Biotech
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Body measurement tracker MyFiziq says it’s on track to release a smartphone app that can measure a person’s risk of chronic disease just by reviewing their selfies.
MyFiziq (ASX:MYQ) has created software that takes pictures from a smartphone to create 3D avatars to measure and track changes in body shape.
The technology can be used in the medical, health and insurance spaces and can track weight loss and muscle gain.
In 2017, MyFiziq signalled it was headed into the medical diagnostics market.
Through a joint venture with Body Composition Technologies – of which MyFiziq owns 50 per cent – work began on commercialising app functions that can track body fat measurement and link this to risk measurement for things like cardiovascular disease, all through the use of a smartphone.
On Monday, the company said Body Composition Technologies had entered data collection agreements with universities in Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand to crunch the body measurement data of thousands of participants.
The data will be used to comlete development of body fat — and visceral body fat — measurement tools.
Visceral fat — which builds up behind the abdominal wall — can lead to serious health conditions like heart disease.
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MyFiziq says this functionality is on track for release in the fourth quarter of 2018.
“This will be the first accurate, proven and independently verified technology of its kind that can measure an individual’s key markers of chronic disease risk with a smartphone,” the company said in a statement.
The technology has caught the attention of the insurance industry, with the company saying 11 global insurers are currently testing the measurement systems.
MyFiziq shares hit a high of $1.65 in December, making it one of the best-performing ASX stocks of 2017.
The share price has come off those highs, however, sitting at 33c in early Monday trade – a 76 per cent drop over the past six months.
It made its first significant revenue in that December quarter, generating $1.8 million in customer receipts. However, customer revenue paused in the March 2018 quarter and the company burned $860,000.
At the end of March, it had $492,000 in the bank.
