The speech-analysing technology is being developed by engineers at UNSW Sydney – and could one day mean testing for the condition could be as simple as talking into a smartphone.
Currently dementia screening involved structured interviews and tests to assess older people’s ability to perform various mental activities, such as memorising three common objects and being able to recall them a few minutes later or drawing the face of a clock with all 12 numbers in the right places.
But Dr Beena Ahmed (pictured) from UNSW’s School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications – who is leading this new project – says these methods aren’t always accurate and depend on the doctor’s expertise and person’s condition.
Their app on the other hand delivers an accurate diagnosis 97.2% of the time.
How does it work?
The app uses technology that looks at the features of a person’s speech – such as their pitch, volume and intonation – as well as testing their memory recall.
A participant listens to a list of 15 words and is then asked to repeat back as many as they can remember. This is done three times using the same 15 words. Then after a gap of 20 minutes, the person is asked to recall as many of the words as they can.
The app is designed to pick up, aside from accurate recall of the words, tell-tale signs of dementia like frequent pauses in searching for a word, repeated or restarted phrases, repeated or extended syllables, frequent fillers (such as “um”), repaired words, mispronunciations, word substitutions as well as certain effects in the speaker’s melody, intonation and rhythm.
The app is still in the early stages of development, but Dr Ahmed says it could not only help people access treatment early to delay the onset of dementia but also make it easier to test people in rural and remote services who may not have the same access to specialist services.
With the number of people living with dementia in Australia expected to grow to 1.1 million by 2058, it’s welcome news.
National Dementia Helpline 1800 100 500
Interpreter service available.
