There are apps for just about everything, from the mundane like telling us the weather, to the novelty of fart apps from back in the day, so there really shouldn’t be any surprise to learn that these days apps and technology have become sophisticated enough where they can even be used to diagnose medical conditions.According to an app that is currently being developed by researchers in India, they are working on a speech-based app that has the ability to detect early onset Alzheimer’s disease in the user by studying the speech patterns of that person, according to Susmita Bhaduri of Kolkata’s Deepa Ghosh Research Foundation.
Bhaduri says, “There is a stark contrast between a normal person’s speech and one who may have suicidal tendencies, Alzheimer’s symptoms or Parkinson’s disease. When a person speaks into the app based on speech emotion recognition, it stores the normal voice patterns and detects if there is any deviation over time.”
The app is currently in development and it has been suggested that it could be used as part of a routine checkup. “The android application is developed as proprietary software at our foundation. We are in the process of validating it with relevant data, in collaboration with entities like (Kolkata’s) Institute of Psychiatry.” No word on how accurate it is in diagnosing early Alzheimer’s in patients, but it is a pretty good idea.
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