According to The Washington Post, researchers at the University of Washington claim to have developed a contactless way of screening irregular Heartbeat with smart speakers. Reportedly, the analysts have developed an AI-powered system that harnesses intelligent consumer speakers like Amazon and Google’s products. These products pick up vibrations caused by nearby chest wall movements.
This heart-tracking technology will facilitate the doctors and medical professionals in conducting telemedicine appointments. This data can be given to them, which otherwise require wearable health trackers or live check-ups.
“We have Google and Alexa in our homes all around us. We predominantly use them to wake us up in the morning or play music. The question we’ve been asking is, can we use the smart speaker for something more useful,” said a computer science professor at UW and co-author of the new report, Shyam Gollakota.
The smart speaker manufacturers could integrate the new Heartbeat tracking features into their products via software updates is which researchers believe. Audio signals are emitted into the room at a volume that humans cannot hear. Then as the pulse bounces back to the speaker, an algorithm identifies the heart beating patterns from a human’s chest wall. Another algorithm later determines the amount of time between two Heartbeat.
Inter-beat intervals are what this information is called. This could help doctors analyze how well a person’s heart is functioning.
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