All over the world as well as in India, artificial intelligence and machine learning enables apps are fast emerging as helpful tools in screening for the coronavirus. This, in turn, has reduced the pressure on healthcare professionals while warning the ones at high risk of getting infected. Many researchers are claiming to have developed coronavirus-specific risk checker apps to argue against the fear and uncertainty about the virus infection, which was declared a pandemic by the WHO.
Apps are believed to be highly useful in reaching someone really early, alert the public, convey precise information related to their symptoms, and control the pervasive fear. Health-tech organizations from all over the world are using medical chatbots to move quickly to update their algorithms in order to screen individuals and recommend whether they should be appraised for the infection. That said, apps that make at-home risk assessments possible in just a minute are also emerging in India.
We at stoodnt.com have talked to people in the know in order to find how best India can consider using AI/ML for coronavirus.
Here is what they shared –
Pradip Bhowmick, Vice President, Chancellor’s office & Director, School of Engineering and Technology ADAMAS University, said, “I was recently reading an article authored by a senior member of one of the world’s largest consulting firms on the impact of coronavirus on higher education institutions. The article is pivoted around one of my most favorite one-word-wonders i.e “transformation”. The author dwells upon a number of areas that are going to change significantly, and even foresees the death of the tedious lecture! I tend to agree to most of what is being predicted and generally believe that “going digital” is the way to go. Having said that, one key aspect of the teaching-learning experience that remains unaddressed by the current trend of digital adoption is “learning by doing”. The question remains, how do we provide an experience of the machine to the students in the digital model, which will be similar to that of the physical experience?”
He further mentioned how the airline industry has long adopted technology to provide the experience to the to-be pilots through simulation and added, “it is time for the higher education institutions to also adopt similar digital infrastructure to augment the existing laboratory set-ups.
Not only will this equip higher education institutions to fully onboard the digital journey, but this will also help to bridge the gap that currently exists in the physical laboratory infrastructure across the spectrum of higher education institutions in the country today.
Developing such simulations will not only require an in-depth understanding of the machines and the mechanics but will also require a thorough understanding and implementation of Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities. Combining AI & ML with Virtual-Augmented Reality (VR & AR) capabilities will equip such digital infrastructure to offer an experience that is even closer to real-life than we can imagine.”
Kuonal Lakhapati, Co-Founder and CEO, 23BMI, a healthcare startup venture focusing on curing obesity and related concerns have shared the following inspiring insights –
Dis-infecting Robots:
India should encourage/promote robotics & drones manufacturers to develop AI-controlled robots & drones that can dis-infect contaminated rooms and open areas reducing the hazard on humans.
Fever Detecting Cameras in Public Places:
AI/ML is capable of detecting fever with the help of cameras equipped with thermal sensors combined with infrared technology to detect forehead temperatures. Such technology can be implemented in most of the public areas such as Airports, Railway stations, Bus stops, Supermarkets, tourist attractions, etc. to identify people who could be potentially be affected by Covid19.
AI/ML for Finding Drugs:
AI/ML could be used to develop antibodies and vaccines for cover-19 or scan through current drugs if they could be re-purposed to fight the current virus outbreak and the future ones. Also, AI will help discover the drugs to flight the outbreak a lot faster than the usual conventional approach. ML models are capable of examining the protein structure, understand the effect of it on the virus, remove the futile alternatives, and finally narrow down on the right substances for the Covid19 vaccine.
Chatbots for Coronavirus Diagnosis:
Chatbots, in no time from their introduction, have become the most commonly used tool for customer support. It’s capable of answering queries and solve problems more accurately and much faster than human customer support staff thus reducing the load on them. People who are in doubt and would want to get themselves checked without visiting a doctor/hospital for Covid19 now could use the chatbots to determine the probability of them being affected by the virus.
Eliminating Misinformation:
As the world is fighting against the coronavirus, misinformation is another problem governments are failing to deal with. In situations like these, the impact of misinformation is huge and chaos/losses could potentially result in very high. AI/ML models are capable of screening information and identifying genuine information by tracing the source of the same whereas discarding incorrect information from being circulated.
According to Saikiran Sondarkar Director – LetsUpgrade,| ITM NWIT Labs, ITM Group of Institutions, while we are fighting the war with Covid-19 the unseen enemy of time we can win the battle with AI/Ml in first place by implementing the following ideas –
AI/ML for Patients Prediction
- We can predict the upcoming number of the Covid-19 people in different areas of the country with the help of already present Data Set size of 17k and taking in consideration of the human traffic moment in that particular area
- We can predict the test kits/ Medicine required at a particular area based upon its current Covid-19 current numbers and get the necessities.
AI/ML for Medicine Development
- Deep Learning is been tested helping humanity in getting the drug development speed up, MIT based research scientists and USA based Consortium for Computing are currently trying to find out which drug will be more effective to cure COVID-19, this all is happening up with Deep learning models can examine drug structures, measure the result on the coronavirus, and eliminate time-consuming process and directly come to a final substance that can be used in drug development.
AI/ML for Prevention
- Development of automated chatbots on all the widely used platforms by people in India, to check are they victims of Covid-19 with the help of symptoms and other parameters checking.
- Development of small IoT based Temperature deduction device attachable to smartphones to see people nearby temperature while traveling.
- Development of AI/ML-based mobile Apps that can help people navigate through while traveling from point A to Point B avoiding hotspot areas and constantly reminding people of precautions to be taken while in the HotSpot Zone.
- Development of Gyroscope based wristbands to alert you from raising your hands above your chest level, as it will be connected to our smartphones via Bluetooth.
- Development of a system to track the food & necessities requirement to BPL people, in various HotSpot zones and bridge a gap between people who want to help, police personals the people ready to deliver necessary, and BPL who need help.
- AI/ML can be huge game-changer for Doctors and Medical Staff, to analyze the patterns recorded previously with different patients and save time, effort, and costs through easy access to unbiased, consistent, good-quality diagnosis data which will be helpful for different patients.
With the planet now coming together on finding solutions to the deadly virus, where all the great minds in global leadership, healthcare, science and medicine, and business are putting their heads together on this right now, it is nor far that we will find a solution to this pandemic.