Yahoo Finance Biotech patents voice recognition software that can tell if you're ill
A London listed biotech group is developing voice recognition software that can diagnose illnesses like Parkinson’s disease and depression just from the sound of your voice.
PureTech Health, which is based in Boston in the US but chose to float on the London stock exchange just over two years ago, is already testing smartphone apps that can identify vocal traits objectively associated with certain illnesses.
We can enable more and more of these devices to provide health monitoring
Joe Bolen, PureTech Health
Last week, it won a patent in the US for the technology, protecting it from copycat rivals, and will now look to sign up patients to clinical trials and fine-tune the product.
Jim Harper, lead scientist on the programme at PureTech, told The Daily Telegraph he envisaged a time when devices like mobile phones and virtual home assistants would monitor people’s voices for signs of illness.
“It sounds like science fiction but it’s not. We can enable more and more of these devices to provide health monitoring,” he said.
Mr Harper said that a number of big tech companies were “very interested” in PureTech’s technology but declined to say which.
Other conditions that could be diagnosed using the software include concussion and minor brain injuries.
