Bing Wang, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Connecticut, has developed an app called LifeRhythm that gathers data from various sensors on a phone to help diagnose depression and other mental conditions. The app is funded by a $718,815 grant from the National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering, according to a UConn blog post.
Ms. Wang said in the blog post that there are signs of depression, including activity, energy levels and social interactions, which can be drawn from data on a smartphone’s location sensor, motion sensor and microphone. Depression has been traditionally difficult to diagnose by standard clinical markers because providers only get a short glimpse into a patient’s life, according to the blog post.
The app’s developers hope to recruit 120 UConn students for the first phase of a trial of the app. The first trial will last one semester; the second trial will expand the subject base and refine the data collection process, according to the blog post. Ms. Wang said the app could also be a platform for communicating with patients for intervention methods.
“The intervention could be as simple as a text saying ‘Go out for a walk,'” Ms. Wang said. “Intervention would be a very natural next step.”
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