Coughvid claims to detect COVID-19 by listening to your coughs

One of the significant challenges medics face in the current pandemic is the lack of a fast and reliable testing method for COVID-19. PCR tests work well, but you have to make a trip to a lab and wait for hours to get the results. Many countries don't have enough tests as well, and an alternative could prove very useful. There's an app for everything nowadays, and as it turns out, there's one that claims to detect COVID-19 by listening to your coughs, SlashGear reports.

The app is wittily named Coughvid and is developed by five researchers at EPFL's Embedded Systems Laboratory (ESL) in Switzerland. It uses AI to analyze the sound of human coughs and determine the probability of infection with COVID-19. The app is web-based and can run on any browser-friendly device with a microphone.

We recorded our coughs on the site, then we were asked to add some info like age, gender, and whether we're healthy or diagnosed with COVID-19. Apparently, the app is still in learning mode, training its AI to differentiate the coughs of a healthy human from those of an infected with COVID-19 individual. No results are provided to the users at the moment.

A dry cough is one of the most common symptoms of the coronavirus infection, and according to the World Health Organization, 67.7% of people who have the virus also report a dry cough without any mucus. Researchers say that the app has a 70% accuracy rate, and all the collected data is anonymous. Coughvid is still in development and will be officially released in the following weeks.