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Soon You Might Be Able to Diagnose Your Kid’s Ear Infection With a Smartphone
Scientists are working on an app to catch the tough-to-diagnose but common ear infection
Symptoms of an ear infection are hard to catch and sometimes even harder for kids to communicate — the most warning parents tend to get is a fussy kid acting out or not being able to sleep.
But that could change after research findings announced last week by a team of scientists from the University of Washington. Justin Chan, PhD student, and Shyam Gollakota, associate professor at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, have developed a smartphone application that uses the device’s speakers and microphones to detect fluid found in the middle ear, a common precursor to an ear infection.
To use Chan and Gollakota’s new application, all you need is a phone and a piece of paper rolled up into a funnel. After a parent places the paper funnel into the ear of the grumpy subject, the phone emits an audible chirp from its speakers in the direction of the eardrum. The reflection of the acoustic waves are picked up by the microphones on the device. Using an algorithm, the software can determine whether there is fluid in the middle ear or if it’s clear.
“At a high level, it is like tapping a wine glass. Depending on how much liquid is in it, you get different sounds. In our case, we are not tapping but sending sounds, and using machine learning on these sounds to detect the presence of liquid,” says Chan.
The team trained the machine learning software to determine if the ear has fluid in it with data from 53 kids between the ages of 18 months and 17 years at Seattle’s Children Hospital. The algorithm correctly identified fluid 85% of the time when tested on a range of children who were slated to have surgery meant to resolve the issue. It worked even better on younger children, with an accuracy rate of 95%, according to a press release about the research.
Ear infections are challenging to diagnose in ordinary circumstances. Currently, clinicians use equipment only found at hospitals and doctors’ offices, meaning parents need to seek potentially expensive medical attention whenever their kids exhibit symptoms…
