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from the knows-when-you've-been-sleeping...-knows-when-you're-awake... dept.
Researchers of the University of Washington, USA are testing the prototype of their ApneaApp to diagnose sleep apnea, a health problem that can become life-threatening. To monitor a person's sleep, the app uses a smartphone as an active sonar system that tracks tiny changes in a person's movements during sleep. The phone speaker sends out an inaudible sound that bounce off the sleeping person's body and which is picked up again by the phone's microphone. "It's similar to the way bats navigate," said Rajalakshmi, lead author and a doctoral candidate in the UW's department of computer science and engineering. "They send out sound signals that hit a target, and when those signals bounce back they know something is there."
In technical terms, the app continuously analyzes changes in the acoustic room-transfer-function which is sampled at ultrasonic frequencies to detect motion and it works at a distance of up to 0.9 meter. This is very similar to what the iPhone app Sleep Cycle Sonalarm Clock does, except that the UW researchers have improved the sensitivity of the method so it can precisely track the person's breathing movements which allows it to not only detect different sleep phases but also sleep apnea events. The advantage in both use cases is that the sleep monitoring is contact-less (there's nothing in the user's bed that could disturb their sleep) and doesn't require any additional hardware besides the user's smartphone.
The researchers used a Samsung Galaxy S4 but that's also a smartphone with one of the best frequency responses with a total variation of only 0.014 dB in a 61 tone sweep from 20-20,000 Hz so perhaps this kind of use can only be done with specific smartphones?
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wonkey_monkey on Monday June 15 2015, @06:33PM
The phone speaker sends out an inaudible sound
Inaudible to humans, sure. But what if you share the room with a canine companion?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by LaminatorX on Monday June 15 2015, @07:21PM
Man, I wish that had been around a couple of weeks back when I got tested. They scrubbed my skin raw in a couple of places before attaching the electrodes, and despite the antiseptic lotion and a shower the next morning a couple of the 'trode sites developed minor infections (I am fine now, well, apart from the apnea ).
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 15 2015, @07:34PM
Seriously, I'm getting pretty worried at the number of ways our cell phones can track us and everything and everyone around us. Sonar precise enough to measure breathing? The CIA/KGB/Mossad must be having a field day! (remind me why any of our enemies are still alive?)
Where's my leaded Faraday cage?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 15 2015, @07:58PM
Put your phone in airplane mode (before it's made obsolete by legislation allowing you to use electronic devices at all times on flight). Then wrap it in a sleeve of aluminium foil.
Try calling or texting your phone when it is not in airplane mode but is wrapped in the foil. The phone's silence will speak volumes.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 15 2015, @08:46PM
If I put the rest of the foil on my head, I can easily argue that the secret numbers the NSA calls from just don't make the phone visibly react...
With enough foil to make a cocked hat, I'd point out that my old phone used to make my PC speakers buzz two seconds before it ran, but the newer ones don't, obviously because the NSA doesn't want me to know that my phone is not really off...
Does Poe's Law apply to conspiracy theorists?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday June 15 2015, @08:18PM
The reason our enemies are still alive is, because we don't wage wars the way we used to. World War II showed us and the world just how horrible things can get, if a war is fought for ultimate victory. I don't know of a scenario where I could in good conscience say that we should use a Nuclear Bomb. Yet that's what we did to finally win a "Victory" in the Pacific against Japan in World War II. Sure we could pretty much turn Afghanistan / Iraq / Iran into a glass desert where nothing is left alive, but that wouldn't be a Victory. The difference is that we have so much military power now, that a serious, desperate war Couldn't result in Victory as winning would be losing in one way or another. Assuming we don't have some random upstart Nuclear Power firing off nukes, there will never be a World War III. Russia, the USA, and all other current Nuclear Powers don't want that kind of war on their hands. We like our luxurious lifestyle the way it is and a nuclear haze isn't what we want to see on the horizon.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday June 16 2015, @02:41PM
I read that Japan were to give up regardless albeit it would take perhaps a few weeks longer. But that didn't fit with the official story so it's not the party line.
As for nuke bombing any country but especially any dessert country will result in radioactive dust spreading with the wind around the globe so it will poison everybody on this planet. Kind of a self defeating move.
The real risk is likely some idiot(s) at top political level. The rational interpretation of nuclear war is suicide and global poisoning. Any small rogue actors is likely to be dealt with expediently.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday June 16 2015, @03:32AM
Sounds to me like a good "intrusion detector" app.
You lay your phone on the nightstand before going to sleep.
The phone characterizes the room and you. You may get up and go pee if you have to. But if anything else moves in the room, it dials another number and connects to a monitoring service which listens in to see if further action is justified. Destruction of the phone after it tries to alert its owner ( after establishing the connection ) would provide sufficient evidence to send the authorities to investigate. Appropriate time delays could be used at the receiving end to minimize false positives, so that the proper vocal password spoken into the phone would cancel the operation. Duress passwords would have the same reply, but throw everything into red alert, while leaving the intruder thinking he got away with a successful intimidation.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 16 2015, @08:09AM