Alexa, do I have COVID-19?

Abstract

Researchers are exploring ways to use people's voices to diagnose coronavirus infections, dementia, depression and much more. By Emily Anthes ILLUSTRATION BY RUNE FISKER

Voice for Health: The Use of Vocal Biomarkers from Research to Clinical Practice

“…More recently, considerable research activity has emerged to use respiratory sounds (e.g., coughs, breathing, and voice) as primary sources of information in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic [39]. COVID-19 is a respiratory condition, affecting breathing and voice, and causing, among other symptoms, dry cough, sore throat, excessively breathy voice, and typical breathing patterns.…”

Impact of COVID-19 on IoT Adoption in Healthcare, Smart Homes, Smart Buildings, Smart Cities, Transportation and Industrial IoT

“…Technologies and tools are also being developed to diagnose COVID-19 using speech analysis. Vocalis, a technology company providing voice-based healthcare solutions, is developing a mobile application (Alexa skill will be developed later) which will be able to detect symptoms of COVID-19 using voice signals [ 91 ]. They had previously developed solutions to detect flare-ups of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by identifying the signs that users were short of breath when speaking.…”

Was können die Maschinen?

“…Dies kann auch in den normalen Alltag übertragen werden. Dies kann so weit gehen, dass in der Zukunft bei einem normalen Sprachkomando der Gesundheitsstatus analysiert und Ihr Roboter -Ihre Siri, Ihre Alexa -"Oh, Sie sind erkältet" sagen wird, behauptet Björn Schuller, ein Spezialist für Sprachund Emotionserkennung der Universität Augsburg [22]. Dieser mahnt aber auch, dass die automatisierte Stimmanalyse noch ein neues Gebiet ist und eine Reihe möglicher Probleme bietet, die von fehlerhaften Diagnosen bis zum ungewollten Eindringen in die Privatsphäre der Patienten reicht.…”