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System Measures Stress In Emergency Callers' Voice
cylonlover writes "Chances are that if you're calling 9-1-1 (or 9-9-9, or whatever it is where you are), you're not likely to tell the operator that your case isn't all that urgent, and that it can wait. The problem is, sometimes emergency dispatch centers are so overloaded with callers – all of them stating that they need assistance right now – that some sort of system is required in order to determine who should get help first. Dutch researchers claim to have developed just such a system, which analyzes callers' voices to determine how stressed-out they are."
Afghani freedom fighters organise a denial-of-service attack by playing back Frodo in the Lord of the Rings to the telephone.
I had a girlfriend who's mom would freak out at the most silly things, and not so silly too, accentuating her voice to make this overtly apparent.
Should have seen her when I accidentally ran over her cat. Very unfortunate, and people react very different in panicked, or life threatening, situations.
I wonder how well this detection will hold up, 4% margin of error seems quite low.
This is very nice from the signal analysis perspective, but the implication that emergency call may be delayed if the caller is not stressed is a bad idea
How well people deal with emergency situations varies hugely. This system would prioritise a 5 year old ringing about a huge splinter she just got over a military veteran reporting a 3 car pileup with limbs everywhere. Can't beat human judgement in a job as important as this.
Or those who have been in "these" situations before and now how to go about the call calmly.
Or those who just don't give a fuck. "Yeah my asshole husband who beats me had a heart attack, and lost consciousness. (yawn). We live at 10 main street. Please hurry. Or not. Whatever."
This sounds like the Dutch are "rationing" their healthcare. What they should be doing is the same thing the ISPs should be doing - laying more lines (and people) to handle the load, rather than capping service.
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Exactly right. This sounds like a bad idea, in that it automatically penalizes those who, by virtue of training, experience, or simply an abundance of mellowness, don't present the physiological response this system is designed to detect. Conversely, it rewards those who are wound too tight or who have simply led very sheltered lives and are completely undone when the water heater starts to leak.
Cool technology, totally misapplied.
Yeah... Hysterical people now get better emergency aid than those of us who manage to remain calm in stressful situations?
- These characters were randomly selected.
Natural selection will provide some interesting long-term consequences.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Haven't you heard? Emergency services has a new number. It's 0118-999-881-999-119-7253.
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I'm getting tired of this trope, especially as it's used as keyword to get immediate panic reflex.
The fact is, in any given society, resources for healthcare will be limited, and generally smaller than what is perceived as necessary by the public.
This will automatically cause a need for prioritizing, as some medical threats are more immediate than others, and should be treated first.
These researchers have been looking into a way for making that more effective. However, it has not been implemented! So 'the Dutch' aren't doing anything here.
Given that waiting lists have been exceedingly long in NL for quite some time now, not due to lack of funding per se, but lack of trained personnel, it's also more than a little irrelevant.
Lastly, I'm just going to assume you live in the U.S.A here, since you're using the rationing healthcare rhetoric. May I remind you that this is done on a large scale in your country already? Only in your case, it isn't rationed based on need, as any decent person would want, but based on how much money you have. Yes you can, in a few select places in the U.S.A, get the best possible healthcare, but only if you have the enormous amounts of money that's asked for it. Normal people have to do with less healthcare than any given Dutch person gets, for much more. Rationing is not so much our problem, as yours.