US military is testing a smart watch and ring system that detects illnesses TWO days before symptoms arise – and can recognize the coronavirus
- US military is using a Garmin watch and Oura ring to detect illnesses
- The system uses an AI that can notify users of an oncoming illness two days before symptoms appear
- The AI monitors 165 biomarkers of the user and provides an hourly score of the likelihood they will get sick
- The system was trained on nearly 250,000 coronavirus cases and other illnesses
The US military is testing a smart watch and ring system capable of detecting illnesses two days before the wearer develops symptoms.
Called Rapid Analysis of Threat Exposure (RATE), the project is using Garmin and Oura devices that have been program with artificial intelligence trained on nearly 250,000 coronavirus cases and other sicknesses.
The system notifies the user of an oncoming illness using a scale from one to 100 on how likely it will happen over the next 48 hours.
Military officials note that ‘Within two weeks of us going live we had our first successful COVID-19 detect.’
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The US military is testing a smart watch and ring system capable of detecting illness two days before the wearer develops symptoms. Called Rapid Analysis of Threat Exposure (RATE), the project is using Garmin and Oura devices that have been program with artificial intelligence trained on nearly 250,000 coronavirus cases and other sicknesses
RATE was developed by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in collaboration with Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and Philips Healthcare.
The system was first announced in 2019 as an 18-month project and has since been updated with a new algorithm trained with Philips’ massive patient bedside database, Defense One reports.
The watch and ring collect 165 biomakers, which are transferred to the cloud where it is processed to provide them with an hourly score through a secure website, DIU Human Systems Director Dr. Christian Whitchurch explained.
Researchers working with RATE have determined that a person’s physiology shows subtle changes when exposed to infectious agents.
The watch and ring collect 165 biomakers, which are transferred to the cloud where it is processed to provide them with an hourly score through a secure website
DTRA Science and Technology Manager Ed Argenta said identifying the changes early is critical to limiting the spread of the illness, as ‘pre-symptomatic individuals don’t yet show signs of infection, and can unwittingly spread the disease to others.’
The RATE model was trained via AI and ML on 293,109 participants, including 256,320 controls and 36,782 with known hospital acquired infections and correlated to these common attributes: temperature, pulse oximeter and cardiac measures, he explained.
Dr. Joe Frassica, the chief medical officer and head of Philips Research North America, the company assisting DTRA, said ”As we continue to get new data from monitored cases of COVID-19, we will be able to refine the RATE-COVID algorithm in the near future. We hope that this will not only allow us to protect people from contracting the disease, but to also intervene early and treat those who are infected.”
According to Defense.gov, more than 64,000 military personnel have tested positive for coronavirus and over 43,000 of those cases have recovered
The Defense Department is set to oversee an extensive rollout of RATE devices to nearly 5,000 people in the coming weeks, Whitchurch said.
The system is currently being tested on about 700 people in the US Navy and Office of Secretary Defense.
Lt. Col. Jeff ‘Mach’ Schneider, a DIU program manager told C4ISRNET: ‘As we continue to collect data and refine the algorithm, priority will continue to be provided to those first responders and those that have had to adopt new operational tempo to support their duty obligations.’
According to Defense.gov, more than 64,000 military personnel have tested positive for coronavirus and over 43,000 of those cases have recovered.