As part of a campaign to improve Covid-19 detection rates, those who have recently taken a Covid test are being asked to record their coughs on their smartphone or computer.
The government also wants people to provide short voice and breathing sound samples and is looking into the feasibility of developing a smartphone app.
The collected sounds would include a short voice recording and some breathing in order to capture people’s voices at various speeds, levels of effort, stress level or natural pitch variation.
Researchers in the US have already created an algorithm that detects Covid from coughs with a near-100% accuracy rate.
It is hoped this type of technology will make diagnosis cheaper and easier.
For the Department of Health and Social Care’s research project, adults who have taken a Covid test in the last 72 hours can submit the barcode they have received from the NHS via their mobile, laptop, tablet or desktop computer.
You then begin by recording your breathing rate as well as coughing before reading out a sentence for analysis. The results are then compared with those of other researches to determine if there is an infection present- so far it seems that this technology may be highly successful!
The team at (MIT) the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed an algorithm last year that picked up 98.5% of Covid infections.
The accuracy rate among participants who had reported no other symptoms was 100%.
Advances in medical technology have the potential to revolutionize healthcare as we know it. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning could lead to cheaper, more efficient diagnosis for patients around the world.
Last year, the UK awarded two contracts to tech giant Fujitsu for the exploration of potential applications, and more recently awarded a contract to Ipsos Mori for data collection.
