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Scientists developed a new artificial intelligence system that they say can tell if someone has COVID-19 just from the sound of coughing.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the algorithm is capable of detecting the virus because the disease causes muscle deterioration that can alter the way people speak or cough, even if they are asymptomatic, the Telegraph reported.
The researchers wrote in a paper published in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology that they tested the new technology on 4,000 recordings of people forcing themselves to cough.
The researchers found that the artificial intelligence system was able to positively identify someone who had tested positive for the virus 98.5 percent of the time.
The figure rose to 100 percent among people who had been confirmed to have the virus but reported no symptoms, the researchers said.
“We think this shows that the way sound is produced changes when you have Covid, even if you are asymptomatic,” co-author Brian Subirana, a research scientist at the university’s Automatic Identification Laboratory, told MIT News.
The team is working on developing an application, and once completed, will attempt to seek FDA approval to make it publicly available.
“The effective implementation of this group diagnostic tool could decrease the spread of the pandemic if everyone uses it before going to a classroom, a factory or a restaurant,” Subirana told the outlet.
