Imagine being able to find out if you have COVID-19 just by recording your voice on a smartphone app.
One company is hoping to make that a reality by using a software that analyzes voice recordings to detect frequencies specific to COVID-19.
Right now, VoiceHealth Inc. is in the research phase, so they’re collecting as many voice samples as possible to try and perfect the technology.
CEO Dr. Blair Lamb says they really need about 500 more voices, to try and get the detection as perfect as possible, through machine learning.
“The company embarked on acquiring voice samples or recordings of people who have (tested) positive for COVID-19, and they were able to develop a database and algorithms specific for COVID-19,” Lamb says. “At this point we have acquired enough voice samples to have a degree of accuracy where the technology is proving very helpful.”
Lamb says the voice samples are screened for any abnormalities.
“So if you have a viral illness such as a coronavirus, your vocal chords, through your nervous system, will express frequencies that are specific to the particular illness, and they’ll be relatively consistent person to person,” Lamb says. “It analyzes your voice, and if it sees something unusual… then it will search for that abnormality and report back to you in 20 seconds.”
Lamb believes this technology could play a massive role in essentially screening away the virus.
VoiceHealth Inc. has not received Health Canada approval at this point, but Lamb is hopeful that more people coming on board, and the possibility of universities showing interest would help bolster the technology enough to receive approval.
“Every time we collect more voices and data, we get another standard deviation closer to perfect,” Lamb says. “So we will get there.”
To learn more about lending your voice to the project, go here.