Cry diagnostics to determine baby’s condition

The child’s resistance is weak and it is often not easy to find when sick. Therefore, the birth of baby cry diagnosis instrument is of great significance. Stephen Sheinkopf, an assistant professor of human behavior and psychiatry at Brown University, who is also the inventor of the analyzer, said in a school news release: “There are many things that can prove that cries differ depending on the situation. For example, For some complications caused by maternal pregnancy or birth, and congenital trauma or brain injury in some premature infants, the analyzer can achieve sustained medical effects.The cry analyzer can completely harm the baby itself. In the case of a baby, the nervous system is measured from the baby's cries, and the baby's physical condition is inferred.

This crying diagnostic device is a non-invasive device that can perform diagnostic tests on very small infants. The working mechanism of the device system is divided into two parts: The first step is to save the cry of the child as a 12.5 millisecond video. Each frame picture will be analyzed with parameters based on frequency characteristics, pitch and sound waves. The second step is to reorganize the first step of the data while reducing many unimportant parameters. Those frames will be re-recorded based on the long pauses, short pauses, and pauses the baby cries.

According to "Language Magazine", "Linguistics" and "Hearing Research Magazine", the researchers stated that their analyzers operate in two phases. In the first stage, a part of the analyzer was used to divide the cry recording of a baby into several segments of 12.5 milliseconds, and the sound changes were determined by referring to various parameters, including changes in volume and sound frequency. In the second phase, the cries of the baby's cries were reconstructed and used some special information from the first stage, such as a simple “wow” sound or pause interval of the sound. The analyzer then records these sound frequencies and other variables such as tones are recorded and analyzed.

Fundamentally, the tool analyzes 80 audio parameters to give an analysis of the baby's brain. Barry Lester, director of the Center for the Study of Hazardous Children at Brown University, who has been working on infant cries for many years, said that the study actually dates back to the 1960s. Similar to Down Syndrome, the clinical manifestations of a disease called "cat syndrome" are also very obvious. The baby with "cat syndrome" resembles a cat and has a light cry and a high tone. It can be easily found without any aids. This discovery made people have a better understanding of the baby's cries can reflect their health status.

Lester said: "This idea compares crying to a window to the brain." Neurological disorders do affect the baby's control of their vocal cords. Lester also published several papers that revealed that infant cries originate from a number of factors, including prenatal drug exposure and malnutrition that can affect their cries.

This latest analyzer provides researchers with a more convenient and effective tool than previous systems to assess cries. Prior to this, staff had to manually record complex tonal change data.

The team at Brown University intends to bring this analyzer to the world, and they will continue to study the relationship between crying and human system disorders. Professor Barry of Brown University said: "We believe crying in the brain is like a window to the house. It can reveal the neurological content of the baby's brain."