A smartphone app that can hear ear infections in children

The smartphone makes a series of soft audible chirps into the ear through a small paper funnel and, depending on the way the chirps are reflected back to the phone, the app determines the likelihood of fluid present with a probability of detection of 85%. To train an algorithm that detects changes in the signal and classifies ears as having fluid or not, the team tested 53 children between the ages of 18 months and 17 years at Seattle Children’s Hospital. After parents provided informed consent, the team recorded the chirps and their resulting sound waves from the patients’ ears immediately before surgery.

Source: www.washington.edu