We all know what a person's voice sounds like when they have bad cold. But would you recognise the sound of some with Parkinson's disease? What about dementia or neck cancer?<\/p>\n
Probably not, but researchers believe algorithms and artificial intelligence will soon be able to pick out signs of illness from someone's voice.<\/p>\n
The technology could even be useful for diagnosing the outbreaks of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n
\"Each one of our internal organs is sort of a resonator, so if we have a problem with our lungs or our heart... this is reflected in our voice,\" says Giovanni Saggio, an electronics engineering professor at Rome's Tor Vergata University, researching in this area.<\/p>\n
\"The way our voice sounds also depends on who is directing the music, that is, the brain. If you have a cerebral problem, like Alzheimers or Parkinsons, the way you talk changes, and we can detect that.\"<\/p>\n
The current novel coronavirus epidemic could be picked up this way, Saggio suggests, since the virus \"compromises the lungs and airwaves, so the voice is definitely affected.\"<\/p>\n
Suspect cases could be screened remotely, keeping them away from hospitals and reducing contagion risks, Saggio says, adding that he is trying to contact Italian hospitals dealing with the outbreak.<\/p>\n
He's one of several researchers around the world looking into this topic. In Germany, a spin-off from Humboldt University, PeakProfiling, says it can \"build algorithms which detect emotional states and physical conditions purely from sound data especially from the human voice.\"<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, University of Washington researchers have published a study in Nature on how devices like Amazon's Alexa can successfully recognise the gasping sounds that often pre-announce cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
By Saggio's reckoning, more than 150 scientific papers have been published worldwide on the correlation between voice changes and various pathologies.<\/p>\n
Using his own patented technology, Saggio tested 284 tuberculosis patients in Mumbai, measuring them against a healthy control group of 28, asking each person to record the same short sentences.<\/p>\n
When voices were analysed, differences in acoustic parameters revealed who was healthy and who was not. Parkinson's sufferers were correctly detected in 95% of cases.<\/p>\n
There may be even more applications, as Saggio imagines that voice recognition could help a parent understand why their baby is coughing or crying.<\/p>\n
Saggio recalls there was even a diagnosis within his initial trials. \"There was this man in the control group who was meant to be healthy,\" he says.<\/p>\n
\"But we told him: Looking at your data, we think you might have a temperature tomorrow, and he said, 'But I feel well!' The next day he had a temperature.\"<\/p>\n
Saggio had his study published in the Journal Of Communication, Navigation, Sensing Aalznd Services in 2016 and is promoting his invention through a start-up, VoiceWise.<\/p>\n
He has been working on it for around 10 years, and, aged 55, hopes to see its wider adoption before reaching retirement age. \"It's going to be a matter of a few years,\" he says.<\/p>\n
The technology could deliver significant public health benefits, as it would make it easier and cheaper to screen patients, including in developing countries, resulting in earlier diagnoses. dpa<\/p>\n
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AI may soon be able to tell you're sick by the sound of your voice - The Star Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We all know what a person's voice sounds like when they have bad cold. But would you recognise the sound of some with Parkinson's disease? What about dementia or neck cancer? Continue reading