It sounds like science fiction: Cough into your cell phone to get tested for COVID-19 instead of going in for a nasal-swab PCR test. But artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) researchers have been laying the groundwork for this for some time. Now Denver-based RAIsonance, Inc. is making it a reality. Harbor recently sat down with Kitty Kolding, co-founder and CEO of RAIsonance, Inc., to learn more about her companies and their revolutionary medical and biometric products.
IDENTIFYING ILLNESS WITHOUT SWABS OR NEEDLES
Identification of acute and chronic illness with software using sophisticated AI/ML is a rapidly advancing field of study. RAIsonance, Inc., based in Denver, CO, is at the forefront of these innovations. The company has been developing a powerful new technology that identifies COVID-19 illness from a person’s forced cough vocalization.
Using a mobile phone to capture the vocalization and send it to the AI/ML engine, the device analyzes the signal data signatures (SDS) and provides a result to the subject and/or a healthcare provider in about 2 minutes.
Because RAIsonance is pursuing an Emergency Use Authorization with the FDA, many of the details can’t be disclosed at this time, but the technology is promising and is based on well-established science validated by MIT and Cambridge University.
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NON-MEDICAL AI/ML PRODUCTS
On the non-medical device front, the company created another AI/ML tool called SoundPass, which is a biometric safety product. SoundPass is designed to detect change in an individual’s forced cough SDS from their baseline. This phone-based app simply answers the question: “Does this forced cough vocalization match my baseline?”
To use the app, users first train it to learn their unique cough SDS by providing 6 recordings of a forced cough vocalization. Afterward, users can conduct a self-check anytime to see if a change has occurred, which could indicate an unsafe condition. If no change has been detected, the user can get a QR code for scanning by local businesses, workplaces or entertainment venues that want to add SoundPass to their perimeter safety protocols.
The company is also working on a customized health tracker app for sufferers of “Long Haul COVID”—the chronic form of COVID-19 illness characterized by an array of chronic symptoms. By adapting the SoundPass technology, RAIsonance, Inc. soon will be offering this tool to help people living with this debilitating condition track their current status against their baseline personal best and to facilitate sharing this information with their healthcare providers.
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