HuntingCovid

A simple system to take pictures inside the mouth with a smartphone's camera. Flexible web platform to collect symptoms and measurable data for analysis to get patterns of early warnings of Covid19.

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Inspiration

The lack of testing is a major obstacle in combatting COVID-19. PCR tests are still not available to everybody and they require visiting a test center and waiting for a result.

Identifying possible early warnings for a COVID-19 infection, which could be detected by the individual himself, could be game changing.

This project aims to identify early warning signals which could be detected and measured with minimal effort and cost. These signals may even be present in asymptomatic carriers.

Approach

Our approach is therefore twofold.

  1. Establishment of a data collection tool in form of an app, that allows individuals to collect possible warning signals. This app will run on a smartphone, tablet or PC and store any kind of observations that an individual may find relevant. A web platform will allow the individual to contribute his data and get feedback on the likeliness of a COVID-19 infection based on the data provided.
  2. Development of tools that help individuals to measure these potential signals. Several early detection tests have already been proposed. In this project we are looking especially for such tests that can be done by individuals without having to travel to a test center. We have already identified some of these possible tests. Within this hackathon we will be building a mobile application and a 3d printed part, that will allow to use the camera of the smartphone to take a picture of the users throat / mouth. We may add lighing options to increase the predictive quality of the picture. We hope that sich pictures (especially when taken periodically) could indicate an infection of the respiratory system at a very early stage, before symptoms manifest. Additionally we have already build chemical sensing platforms for breath measurement within EU funded research and have a lot of experience in this area (SNIFFPHONE and VOGAS)

In essence we propose a very simple system that would give a result very fast and that could be used for population screening. It is based on a mouthpiece that would facilitate taking a picture of the user's mouth. The images will then be collected via the web platform and analyzed. If patterns can be found from these images, this system can be a very useful tool for early detection of Covid19.

What it does

During these 2 days, we have:

  • designed and built a working prototype for a moth piece that facilitates taking pictures of the throat and can host several LEDs for lightnening purposes,
  • developed a mobile application that will be the basis for the continuation of the project,
  • collected information from the scientific literature on the possible ways Covid19 may affect the throat,
  • created a website to diseminate our achivements and our ideas for to further develop this project.

How we built it

Mouth Piece

We desiged the mouth piece with Fusion, a powerful CAD design software tool, then we printed the prototype using the 3D printers available at the company.

Mobile application

We used C# programming language and the IDE Visual-Studio, along with specific tools for mobile apps provided by Xamarin.

With the icons obtained from icons8.

Web Site

To build the web site we have used WordPress and docker containers running on a linux root server

Challenges we ran into

The big challenge we face in this project is the lack of knowkedge about Covid19. There exist some reports indicating that the viruses may stay and develop the throat at early stages, but there is no evidence that alterations in the throat may give reliable diagnosis. A proof-of-concept will be needed at some point. However, our concept is flexible, our conceived platform would combine information from a variety of sources; descrption of symptomes, pictures of skin lesions, breath analysis data,... Other challenges we run into are those we all face in a hackathon, this is: developing and carrying out a big idea in little time, finding complementary teammates, learning new tools on the go, etc.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very happy to have finished the mouth piece design and printed with the 3-D printer of our company (JLM-Innovation GmbH), to have finished the website and to have a prototype of a mobile application tested on an android device.

What we learned

  • Specific technical skills.
  • A lot of team collaboration tools.
  • How to go from concept to prototype in just 2 days

What's next for HuntingCovid

  • Develop a database web application to record user data
  • Create and/or train an AI to identify possible early warnings for a COVID-19 infection, based on data provided by users
  • Develop a mobile application integrating the AI model
  • Create new measuring devices and adapt them to the software
  • Build distribution and adaption for more smartphones
  • Create a commercial environment to provide production and distribution
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