the little device that could prevent another pandemic

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FluSense, a continuous symptom detection system, could help us avoid a second crisis linked to a viral epidemic, such as that of the coronavirus.

Of drones used by police to interactive maps to establish the health weather from one country, innovative solutions abound to combat covid-19. However, detecting the onset and monitoring the circulation of viral infections remains very difficult, in particular due to the many factors to be taken into account. Is this new device the solution?

FluSense monitors whether you cough or not

Designed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, FluSense only takes into account one indicator to monitoring viral epidemics: cough. Indeed, it’s aboutone of the factors common to all influenza viruses.

Thus, the small portable device detects when a person coughs. Combine that with geolocation data, and the inventors believe the device will track the spread of a future viral epidemic. All this of course in order to stop it.

How does it work ?

In its final form, the FluSense could resemble a smoke detector. But for the time being, the device is still very experimental. However, it already embeds well advanced technologies.

It therefore has a microphone which detects not only coughs, but also sneezing. In addition, a terminal camera used to measure the density of a crowd. All of the data collected by these sensors is then processed by a machine learning to follow the evolution of the situation. The results will then allow the necessary measures to be taken.

flusense in hospital waiting rooms

So far, scientists have tested FluSense with success in hospital waiting rooms. The 7 months of the experience allowed them to analyze 21 million audio samples and 350,000 thermal images.

They are still working on an affordable version that will allow them to monitoring much larger spaces, frequented by even more people.

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