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COVID-19 detection from audio: seven grains of salt
Open accessAbstract
Digital mass testing for COVID-19 via a mobile phone application could be made possible through machine learning and its ability to identify patterns in data. COVID-19 appears to confer unique features in the audio produced by infected individuals,1 and machine learning COVID-19 detection from breath, cough, and speech audio recordings has yielded promising results.2–4 In this critique, we present seven major issues with this research and argue that further investigation is needed before conclusions about the detectability of COVID-19 from audio can be made.
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“While audio-based applications have seen significant advancements, deploying them in real-world settings, especially for audio-based COVID-19 detection, remains challenging [86].”
From Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [86]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Coppock, H., Jones, L., Kiskin, I., & Schuller, B.
- Affiliations
- Imperial College London (GB)
- North Bristol NHS Trust (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Coppock, Harry
- Venue
- The Lancet Digital Health
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-09
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e537-e538
- ISSN
- 2589-7500 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8294804
- OpenAlex
- W3185939438
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 8
- FWCI
- 7.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Lancet Digital Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OPUS (Augsburg University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Phonocardiography and Auscultation Techniques
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › COVID-19 diagnosis using AI
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Speech and Hearing › Voice and Speech Disorders
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, audio-based diagnosis, speech analysis, cough, lung sounds, mobile application, large-scale testing, machine learning, diagnostic accuracy
- MeSH terms
- Machine Learning, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Testing, Cough, Humans, Mass Screening, Respiration, Sound, Speech, Telemedicine, Cell Phone, Mobile Applications, Datasets as Topic
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