According to an article published in nature journal - Researchers are exploring ways to use people’s voices to diagnose coronavirus infections, dementia, depression and much more. Scientists are using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify potential vocal biomarkers for coronavirus infections, dementia etc.

A Israel based voice-analysis company -Vocalis,  had previously built a smartphone app that could detect flare-ups of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by listening for signs that users were short of breath when speaking. The copmany wanted to do the same thing with COVID-19. People who had tested positive for the coronavirus could participate simply by downloading a Vocalis research app.

Then Vocalis began processing these recordings with its machine-learning system, alongside the voices of people who had tested negative for the disease, in an attempt to identify a voiceprint for the illness. By mid-summer, the firm had more than 1,500 voice samples and a pilot version of a digital COVID-19 screening tool.

Source: Emily Anthes, Nature 586, 22-25 (2020). doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02732-4