14歲時(shí)你在干嘛？逃課、早戀、面臨被數(shù)理化支配的恐懼？ 這位14歲的華裔少女卻已經(jīng)開發(fā)出了世界上第一款阿茲海默癥APP了！

阿茲海默癥俗稱“老年癡呆癥”，華裔少女Emma Yang?10歲時(shí)，她最愛的奶奶阿茲海默癥病情惡化，為幫助奶奶記起與家人的點(diǎn)滴，她決定開發(fā)一款名為“永恒”（Timeless）的APP。

該APP將幫助無(wú)數(shù)的患者和家屬們，現(xiàn)在，Emma的故事已經(jīng)感動(dòng)了很多人，連美國(guó)前副總統(tǒng)阿爾·戈?duì)柡蛢|萬(wàn)富翁比爾·蓋茨也在推特上對(duì)她表示贊賞：“我喜歡這個(gè)故事這個(gè)APP為阿茨海默病患者和他們所愛的人搭起了橋梁”。

近日，南華早報(bào)（South China Morning Post）專訪了這位14歲的創(chuàng)業(yè)小女孩，流利的英文表達(dá)搭配堅(jiān)定的眼神，難怪比爾蓋茨都為她打call。

At the age of 14, the Hong Kong-born Yang has already created her own mobile app for Alzheimer’s patients, which has impressed the likes of Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates and Alibaba Group Holding executive vice-chairman Joseph Tsai.

The Timeless app, which Yang spent two years developing and refining, comes with several core features. It uses an artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition system, from Miami-based start-up Kairos, to help Alzheimer’s patients identify people in photos and remember who they are.

It also allows photos to be grouped by individuals as well as provide a picture-based phone book, which enables a user to tap on photos to call or text a person.

“What really motivated me to [work on Timeless] was seeing how many people were reacting to it, saying I would love to have this for my own family members [have Alzheimer’s],” Yang said.

She is part of a growing number of teenagers who have studied software coding and become entrepreneurs at a young age, as more students in Hong Kong are steered towards STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education to help foster a culture of innovation in the city.

The inspiration to develop an app that would help Alzheimer’s patients connect with their loved ones came to Yang at the tender age of 12, when her grandmother – who suffers from the chronic neurodegenerative disease – started forgetting things like what she ate for dinner and Yang’s birthday.

“I wanted to create something to help people like my grandmother stay connected with her family,” Yang said. It was a task she was well-prepared to undertake.

“I started learning coding when I was around six, and later began developing games and websites,” Yang said. The young software developer said winning a competition, in which she developed an app to identify whether a head injury could be a concussion, led her to appreciate the impact of technology on people’s lives.

“I thought [then] that if I know how to code, I should also have the ability to help people,” she said.

Yang’s father, who works in the technology industry, was the one who introduced her to computers and Scratch, a block-based visual programming program targeted at kids.

Still, Yang’s life as a young software developer and entrepreneur has not been without formidable challenges. She cited as an example how venture capitalists have not taken her work seriously. Some of these people even suggested that she exhibit her project at science fairs or “put it online and see how it does”.

Undeterred by those setbacks, Yang started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in March last year to support her Timeless app project. That effort raised more than US$10,000.

“I think perseverance is really important,” Yang said. “Never let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t be in the field that you want to be in the most.”

At present, Yang works with an international team that includes a designer in California and a developer based in Cologne, Germany. The chief technology officer of Kairos, the AI start-up whose technology is used in the Timeless app, is now Yang’s adviser.

She urged other young, aspiring entrepreneurs to believe in themselves because the teenagers of today will be tomorrow’s leaders.

“Technology has been able to empower kids from all walks of life to put their ideas into action,” she said. “As long as you get out there and put yourself out there, tell people about your idea and … find out who’s on board and can get behind it, you’ll [eventually] find that team of people.”

14歲華裔天才少女

Emma Yang今年14歲，中文名叫楊君熙，生活中是個(gè)喜歡自行車和喵星人、有些內(nèi)向的華裔少女。

當(dāng)然，她還有另一個(gè)更廣為人知的身份，那就是天才少女程序員！

6歲就開始學(xué)習(xí)編程的她，對(duì)計(jì)算機(jī)技術(shù)有著強(qiáng)烈的興趣，熱衷于用電腦創(chuàng)造各種有趣的事物！

10歲之前，Emma都在香港和奶奶住在一起，她和奶奶關(guān)系十分親密，行為、表情、習(xí)慣等都深受奶奶的影響媽媽說(shuō)她就是“奶奶的影子”。

不幸的是，在Emma 7歲的時(shí)候，奶奶被確診為阿茲海默癥患者，這種病癥在不同人的身上有不同的癥狀，Emma的奶奶則是開始忘記一些事情。

Emma10歲那年，她的父母決定搬到紐約去生活，但同時(shí)奶奶的病情開始惡化，常和奶奶打越洋電話的Emma發(fā)現(xiàn)：奶奶總是不停地重復(fù)同樣的問題。一遍又一遍地問她“最近還好嗎？”明明幾分鐘之前剛剛回答過了，奶奶也會(huì)馬上忘記。

奶奶忘記了她的生日，總是搞不清楚她現(xiàn)在幾歲，也記不住爸爸的電話號(hào)碼，只能將一些重要信息記在家里的白板上。

家人給奶奶買了一部iPad，將重要的家庭照片存在里面，希望奶奶可以翻看照片找回記憶。

但Emma仍感到很害怕，萬(wàn)一奶奶不認(rèn)識(shí)她了怎么辦？萬(wàn)一奶奶走丟了怎么辦？這樣的問題光是想想就讓人難受，這種事情絕不能發(fā)生！Emma決定要用自己的電腦技術(shù)，幫助奶奶重拾記憶。

希望APP能幫助更多患者

那么，要怎么做呢？

Emma想到了開發(fā)一款專門針對(duì)阿茲海默癥患者的APP，但Emma雖是程序天才，開發(fā)APP這種龐大的工程她也沒有嘗試過，幸好，一路總有許多貴人相助。

Emma的父親本身就是軟件工程師，他給了Emma許多技術(shù)上的支持，但既然是為阿茲海默癥患者開發(fā)的APP，自然應(yīng)該了解患者最需要的是什么，為此，Emma做了大量的調(diào)查研究并咨詢了許多專業(yè)人士

她發(fā)現(xiàn)患者常常無(wú)法識(shí)別親友的面孔，于是在APP中導(dǎo)入了面部識(shí)別技術(shù)，當(dāng)患者使用這個(gè) APP 時(shí)，它會(huì)不斷滾動(dòng)親友的照片，并通過面部識(shí)別技術(shù)，告訴患者目前屏幕上顯示的人和自己是什么關(guān)系。

APP中有一個(gè)記錄當(dāng)日重要事項(xiàng)的日歷，還包含一個(gè)家庭成員的快速呼叫頁(yè)面，包含照片、姓名等全部信息，此外還有一頁(yè)名為“我”，在這一頁(yè)顯示了病人自己的信息，包括姓名、家庭住址、年齡和電話號(hào)碼。

當(dāng)患者因?yàn)椴∏槎磸?fù)撥打一個(gè)電話時(shí)，APP 會(huì)作出提醒：“您確定要打電話嗎？你五分鐘前才剛給這個(gè)人打過電話”可以說(shuō)是非常貼心了

當(dāng)然，光靠Emma一個(gè)人的力量是無(wú)法開發(fā)出這款A(yù)PP的，面部識(shí)別技術(shù)來(lái)自于一家叫Kairo的公司，他們?yōu)樵S多APP做過內(nèi)嵌的面部識(shí)別功能，公司首席技術(shù)官Cole Calistra十分欣賞Emma：“對(duì)于那個(gè)年齡段的人來(lái)說(shuō)，能有如此驅(qū)動(dòng)精神真的非常了不起“

阿茲海默癥專家Kramps 和美國(guó)加州記憶與衰老中心副教授Possin都給了Emma很大的幫助他們不斷地給Emma提出反饋意見，經(jīng)過無(wú)數(shù)次的改良才有了現(xiàn)在的“永恒”

在受邀前往Ted演講時(shí)Emma 說(shuō)：“希望永恒能幫助到世界各地的阿爾茨海默患者”

阿茲海默患者的寒冬

說(shuō)到阿茲海默癥，大家也許會(huì)覺得很熟悉，但其實(shí)真正了解的人并不多，這已經(jīng)是世界上最嚴(yán)重、患病上升率最高的疾病之一了，其中以中老年人居多，但年輕人里也不乏案例。

據(jù)統(tǒng)計(jì)，目前全球約有5000萬(wàn)人深受阿茲海默癥的折磨，到2050年，這個(gè)數(shù)字會(huì)上升到1.3億！

也就是說(shuō)，你的親人、朋友都有可能患上這種疾病，慢慢忘記你們之間的點(diǎn)點(diǎn)滴滴，甚至連生活也無(wú)法自理！

阿茲海默患者的“寒冬”正在來(lái)臨，但是大家似乎還不重視這個(gè)問題，Emma在做市場(chǎng)調(diào)查時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)市場(chǎng)上相關(guān)的應(yīng)用程序非常少，因此她決定“用技術(shù)的力量來(lái)填補(bǔ)這個(gè)空白”。

目前，“永恒”還在進(jìn)行程序優(yōu)化，Emma已經(jīng)在網(wǎng)上進(jìn)行眾籌，希望能籌到5萬(wàn)美元用于開發(fā)和推廣，如果順利，應(yīng)用有望在2018年底正式上線。

而她本人則希望能在大學(xué)里更深入地了解計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)和人工智能技術(shù)，在這些領(lǐng)域探索和發(fā)展自己的事業(yè)，她希望未來(lái)“科技能找到一種治療阿爾茨海默癥的方法，而‘永恒’將成為診斷和治療之間病人的過渡工具”。

也難怪比爾·蓋茨都為她點(diǎn)贊，心懷夢(mèng)想，大膽實(shí)踐，如果有越來(lái)越多Emma這樣的人，阿茲海默癥患者的“春天”也不會(huì)太遠(yuǎn)吧。

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