Researchers from the National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin have created the Infant Cries Translator, a smartphone app which can differentiate between four separate crying sounds thanks to a database of over 200,000 crying sounds. Collected over a two-year period from nearly 100 newborn infants, the Infant Cries Translator was created by analyzing the frequency of the individual screams, with researchers distinguishing minute changes in the acoustics of each.
“The Infant Cries Translator can differentiate four different statuses of sounds of baby crying, including hunger, the diaper getting wet, sleepy and pain,” says research leader Chang Chuan-yu.
Still, they say, the accuracy is still around 77 percent for a four-month-old baby, they note. After six months of age, the app becomes less useful as babies become more comfortable in their environment, the researchers explain.
To use the app, parents upload an audio recording of their baby crying. The vast database of baby cries then analyzes the recording, and in seconds, the results show why your baby is crying. The app isn’t completely foolproof, according to Chang, but it’s results are promising.
The $2.99 app was made available in early 2015 for iOS at the Apple App Store and Android devices on Google Play.
