To help identify depression early, scientists have now enhanced a technology that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to sift through sound of your voice to gauge whether you are depressed or not.
Given that India — the sixth most depressed country in the world — has an estimated 56 million people suffering from depression and 38 million from anxiety disorders, the technology can be of immense useful for intervention in the sector. Infact, the Union health ministry is already working towards using AI in a safe and effective way in public health.
The study, conducted by Mashrura Tasnim and Professor Eleni Stroulia, computing science researchers from University of Alberta in Canada builds on past research that suggests that the timbre of our voice contains information about our mood.
Using standard benchmark data sets, Tasnim and Stroulia developed a methodology that combines several Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to recognise depression more accurately using acoustic cues.
A realistic scenario is to have people use an app that will collect voice samples as they speak naturally.
“The app, running on the user’s phone, will recognise and track indicators of mood, such as depression, over time. Much like you have a step counter on your phone, you could have a depression indicator based on your voice as you use the phone,” said Stroulia.
Depression is ranked by WHO as the single largest contributor to global disability. It is also the major contributor to suicide deaths.
The ultimate goal, said researchers, is to develop meaningful applications from this technology. Such a tool could prove useful to support work with care providers or to help individuals reflect on their own moods over time.
“This work, developing more accurate detection in standard benchmark data sets, is the first step,” added Stroulia while presenting the paper at the Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence recently.
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said in Lok Sabha on July 12 that to address gaps in India’s AI ecosystem and realise its economic impact, the central government has prioritised building AI technology capabilities.
“The potential of AI in public health is being explored in our country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is working towards using AI in a safe and effective way in public health in India,” he said during Question Hour.
Vardhan said a few of the initiatives undertaken by the central government to use AI in public health are imaging biobank for cancer, for which the NITI Aayog with Department of Bio-Technology aims to build a database of cancer-related radiology and pathology images of more than 20,000 profiles of cancer patients with focus on major cancers prevalent in India.
He said the NITI Aayog is working on using AI for early detection of diabetic retinopathy. He added that the NITI Aayog is currently in the process of developing an institutional mechanism, funding framework and other such steps to realise India’s AI aspirations. NITI Aayog, after consultation with various ministries and leading academicians, institutions, practitioners and industry players, released India’s National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in June 2018.
“Through the strategy and subsequent initiatives, the key recommendations in AI are being pursued,” he said.