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Your Cough Can Reveal If You’re Infected With Covid-19
New algorithm can detect ‘covid cough’ inaudible to humans.
A new algorithm developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) can detect who’s infected by covid-19 by a sound recording of someone’s cough.
The combination of a cellphone recording and the algorithm is enough to discriminate a healthy person from a person with Covid-19 accurately.
The algorithm was able to correctly identify 98.5% of people who had been diagnosed as COVID-19 positive, and it had a 100% success rate in those who had no other symptoms.
This is a massive breakthrough as it can potentially identify people who have Covid-19 simply through the use of a phone and an app. Instead of having to bring people into testing labs physically, they can safely test themselves from their own homes.
Additionally, it brings down the cost of testing to close to zero, and it’s a non-invasive method which makes it a lot easier, and less painful for people to test themselves as often as needed.
The researchers still need regulatory approval before they are allowed to launch an app.
According to the researchers, the human ear cannot pick up the crucial sound difference.
