iPhone App to Diagnose Illness through Sound

If you hate taking a trip to see the Doctor then perhaps a new iPhone app is for you. The application has been designed to diagnose respiratory disease by listening to you coughing in to the iPhone mic. However, the application hasn’t been released yet as it is currently being developed.

Once the application is launched all you will need to do is cough in to the microphone on your Apple iPhone whereby the computer records the cough and compares it to a database of other coughs. Due to there being different types of coughs, the system is capable of telling you if you need help or not….

Doctors generally classify coughs as wet or dry, with a subcategory of productive or nonproductive, a reference to the presence or production of mucous in the lungs. Most health care professionals can distinguish between the two kinds, and each kind gives subtle hints about whether a person has a bacterial or viral infection. Scientists think there is much more information hidden in coughs though, and are trying to tease out that information by analyzing specific sounds inside coughs.

Coughs have been recorded from both males and females from various age and weight groups. About 1,000 coughs are needed for the software to be truly effective.

There is no official release date for the application although they are working on it at the moment.

It makes you wonder though if each morning you simply cough in to your iPhone and it tells you to either get to to work or stay at home! Either way, I’m not sure I am ready to trust the opinion of an iPhone vs the 30+ years of experience my GP has.

Via: Next Nature and PSFK

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