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Digital Assistants May Be Able To Automatically Detect When Someone Is Having a Heart Attack, Study Finds 31

Zorro shares a report from The Register: Smart speakers are always listening for wake words, and recording everything they hear to improve their neural networks and target their masters with marketing. It's, frankly, creepy. Academics at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, however, believe there are benefits to installing a cyber-assistant at home that listens in all the time. "A lot of people have smart speakers in their homes, and these devices have amazing capabilities that we can take advantage of," said Shyam Gollakota, coauthor of the research published this week in npj Digital Medicine. "We envision a contactless system that works by continuously and passively monitoring the bedroom for an agonal breathing event, and alerts anyone nearby to come provide CPR. And then if there's no response, the device can automatically call 911." "When the researchers tested their system on samples from the positive dataset, the devices correctly identified the noises associated with heart attacks about 96 percent of the time when they were placed six meters away from the source of the sound," the report adds. "But there's a catch: it only really works when the researchers apply a noise cancellation algorithm to drown out background noise. The percentage for identifying heart attacks rapidly drops to just below five per cent if a noise cancellation algorithm isn't applied."
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Digital Assistants May Be Able To Automatically Detect When Someone Is Having a Heart Attack, Study Finds

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  • by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Saturday June 22, 2019 @08:04AM (#58803868)
    "Sure, here is a list of malls at Sundance"
  • ". . . an orgasm and a heart attack . . . ?

    • ". . . an orgasm and a heart attack . . . ?

      Alexa: Yes. With one, people usually say "Oh God!" and the other "Hi God."

  • Hype and novelty (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Saturday June 22, 2019 @08:35AM (#58803954) Journal

    This is a terribly indirect method of detecting a heart attack. Agonal respiration is the body's last ditch effort to stay alive. It's basically the brain stem kicking in and trying to force breathing. They are several seconds apart and sound a lot like a big sudden sigh, but often with a rattling or snoring. I'm very curious how they expect to differentiate between agonal respiration and sleep apnea, because they result in the same kind of sudden deep breath followed by several seconds without breathing.

    You'd be far, far better off having a fitbit, apple watch, etc looking for changes in pulse rate and strength than hoping to catch the sound of someone's last gasps as they die.

    • You'd be far, far better off having a fitbit, apple watch, etc looking for changes in pulse rate and strength than hoping to catch the sound of someone's last gasps as they die.

      Also explain better to people what it feels like to get a heart attack.

    • I'm very curious how they expect to differentiate between agonal respiration and sleep apnea, because they result in the same kind of sudden deep breath followed by several seconds without breathing.

      Aside from it being technically interesting, in the real world, who cares? Either way you may die without medical attention.

  • alerts anyone nearby to come provide CPR

    First, clear my browser history.

  • *Door crashes in*
    "..Oh, sorry citizen, your smart speaker detected what it thought was a heart attack. No worries, may the paramedics check you out quickly while we're here? It's just for your protection. Mind if we have a quick look around while we're here? It's for your protection, citizen. Oh hey nice DVD collection." (body cam takes a picture) "Wow you like to read don't you?" *body cam records all the books on your shelves* "This is a nice place you have here, Citizen" *body cam sweeps the room takin

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