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Mumbai Developer With Bell’s Palsy Builds ‘Mirror’ App to Track Facial Rehab

A patient-built AI tool points to more accessible rehab tracking.

Overview

  • Ali Mustufa, a senior developer from Mumbai, created an app called Mirror after Bell’s palsy left the right side of his face temporarily paralyzed.
  • The mobile-first tool measures facial symmetry in real time by comparing left and right movements across more than 400 tracked points.
  • Users can log daily exercises, see timelapse videos of their progress, and share clear reports that physiotherapists can review.
  • Mustufa said he built the app with AI coding agents such as OpenAI’s Codex and Anthropic’s Claude and he plans a public release with a possible GitHub code drop.
  • He is testing the approach with his physiotherapist and the project has drawn support on X, including an offer of a ChatGPT subscription from OpenAI executive Vaibhav Srivastav.