SEATTLE — Does your partner snore?
It could be sleep apnea, which affects an estimated 25 million Americans and can be deadly. Testing for it can cost thousands of dollars.
But now, much cheaper help is coming out of the University of Washington with a phone app that detects breathing.
"It felt like magic when we were first able to detect that small breathing signal,” said Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, a developer and student at UW’s School of Computer Science and Engineering.
Late last year, Nandakumar and her team at UW found out that a cell phone's signal can be used to identify breathing patterns associated with sleep apnea.
"When you're breathing, typically your chest and your abdomen moves,” she said.
So here’s how it works:
The phone needs to be within about three feet of you. You press a button and go to sleep.
The phone emits a signal through the speaker which bounces off your body.
Depending on your breathing, the signal will take longer to bounce off your body and reach the phone's microphone.
"So it can know at what distance the human body is,” said Nandakumar.
And Nandakumar knows this works: She and doctors at UW Medicine Sleep Center have run simultaneous sleep apnea tests both the old fashioned way – and with the app on the phone nearby.
The results so far have been 98 percent accurate.
"I hope that it would create a great impact,” said Nandakumar.
Developers hope to get FDA approval and make the app available to the public within a year.
KIRO
