Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of neurological disorders that cause limitations in a person's activity, affecting movement, balance, and posture. In Spain, there are approximately 120,000 people with cerebral palsy. The Aspace Foundation of the Balearic Islands and the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) have worked together on knowledge transfer to develop innovative technologies, which has resulted in improved quality of life for people with CP and other related conditions.

In this case, they have developed a research project to create a new technology: "Code for the training and testing of neural networks for pain recognition", which is intended to be installed in a mobile application called PainScan CP.

The purpose of this application is to recognize signs of pain in patients with cerebral palsy through the detection of their facial expressions. "Research has been carried out using different markers, such as saliva, facial recognition, and electroencephalograms. However, we opted for facial recognition because it is the most agile, practical, and easy to use," explains Jesús Hernando, manager of the Aspace Foundation. UIB has been developing software that “through artificial intelligence neural networks, can recognize pain patterns in a person's face—that is, identify pain through facial recognition in people with cerebral palsy,” says Hernando.

The application aims to be used by other organizations and caregivers of people with CP. In this regard, the manager explains that “UIB is transferring this research to us so we can implement it in a mobile app we are developing.” The app is scheduled to be released in January 2026. “Our goal is to make it as simple as possible. The caregiver of a person with cerebral palsy will access the app and record a five-second video of the individual suspected to be in pain. The video will be sent to the server, processed, and analyzed through pattern recognition to determine whether the person may be in pain, and a response will be generated,” adds Hernando.

For both the UIB and the Aspace Foundation, the main goal is that this knowledge transfer creates a positive return for society, making sure that all research can be applied in daily life. They also seek to make it accessible both nationally and internationally, as “if a person doesn’t always have the same caregiver, it can be difficult to detect what is happening and whether or not the person is in pain. Therefore, detecting pain in time allows for immediate palliative measures, which can significantly improve the person’s quality of life,” Hernando admits.

On this occasion, EENBalears, through the University-Business Foundation of the Balearic Islands (FUEIB), has provided support in the valorization of the research results, helping bring them to market—covering aspects related to the intellectual protection of results, the management of technology transfer activities, and the transfer agreement signed with Aspace.

Source of information: El Económico.