James Lloyd, "AI Created to Translate Babies' Cries," June 15, 2019. 

AI created to translate babies’ cries

Artificial intelligence could distinguish between normal cry signals and abnormal ones, such as those resulting from an underlying illness.

Why It Matters: Demonstrates international scientific recognition and broad interest in AI technologies for pediatric healthcare.

Julia Wilde, "Scientists Are Translating Babies' Cries with Artificial Intelligence," August 1, 2019. 

Why It Matters: Explains the underlying AI methodology and clinical motivation to a broad public audience, illustrating the accessibility and practical relevance of the research. 

Tom Knowles, ‘Cry Freedom: What baby’s Bawls mean’, The Times, July, 6, 2019. 

There are many challenges that parents face when dealing with a new baby but working out why they are crying can often be the most frustrating. Now scientists believe they have found an answer.

A group of researchers in Illinois have created an “Alexa for babies” that they claim can determine what a baby wants by analysing the way they are crying, based on factors such as length, tone and frequency. The tool could prove vital not just for sleep-deprived parents but also for doctors and nurses to figure out quickly which babies in a neonatal unit need immediate attention because they are crying in pain.

The baby cry “translator” has been developed by researchers at the Digital Signal Processing Laboratory at Northern Illinois University, led by Lichuan Liu, a professor of electrical engineering.

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Why It Matters: Independent coverage by a leading international newspaper, demonstrating broad public and media interest in AI-assisted pediatric health technologies. 

"Übersetzer für Babys (Translator for Babies)," August 2019.

Why It Matters: Demonstrates international recognition by a leading European technology publication, validating the technical innovation and global interest in AI-enabled infant cry analysis.

Aristos Georgiou, "AI Algorithm That Deciphers the Meaning of a Baby's Cry Created by Scientists," June 2019. 

Why It Matters: Mainstream international recognition demonstrating broad public interest in AI applications for infant health. 

Colm Gorey, "Scientists build AI designed to tell what a baby's crying means," June 7, 2019. 

Why It Matters: Recognition by a leading technology and innovation publication, highlighting the commercial and clinical potential of AI-assisted pediatric healthcare technologies. 

Michelle Hampson, "A Noise-Canceling System for People Who Snore: System Uses an Adaptive Algorithm to Adjust to Unique Acoustic Signatures," January 25, 2019. 

No matter how much you love your partner, you may like them a little less if they snore loudly. That’s understandable. Noise levels around 35 decibels (dBs) are sufficient to disrupt a person’s quality of sleep—a level easily exceeded by moderate snoring that occurs in the 50-to-60-dB range (the record is a grandmother in the United Kingdom, who hit bellowing baritones of 116 dBs). Impaired quality and quantity of sleep can result in more than just crankiness; it can directly affect the energy, concentration, and alertness of the snorer’s partner. 

Why It Matters: Demonstrates expertise in adaptive signal enhancement and active noise control, providing the engineering foundation for reliable AI-based pediatric acoustic sensing in real-world noisy environments 

Researchers to Know  2021

Each year, the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) releases detailed metrics benchmarking Illinois’ innovation economy through our Illinois Innovation Index. This includes annual data on the volume of startups founded by students and faculty at Illinois universities, as well as research activity and output across the state’s campuses. While we view these metrics as vital for assessing Illinois’ progress in key economic development areas, taking this big-picture view of innovation can overlook the groundbreaking research being conducted by world-class researchers at our campuses across the state.

New AI tool can tell babies' cries apart

PTI / Jun 6, 2019, 22:54 IST

WASHINGTON: Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) based tool that can identify and distinguish between normal cry signals of babies and abnormal ones, such as those resulting from an underlying illness.

The method, described in the IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica (JAS), promises to be useful to parents at home as well as in healthcare settings, as doctors may use it to discern cries among sick children. 

New artificial intelligence algorithm to identify reason behind baby cries

ANI |Updated: Jun 06,2019 14:02 IST

Washington D.C. [USA], June 6 (ANI): While a baby's cry can worry a parent, at the same time it can be irritating too. A group of researchers in the US has come up with anew artificial intelligence (/topic/artificial-intelligence) method which is capable of identifying and differentiating normal and abnormal cries.

The method can detect whether the cry is because of hunger, illness or something else. The research was published in the IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica(JAS). 

While each baby's cry is unique, they share some common features when they result from the same reasons. The new research uses a specific algorithm (/topic/algorithm based on automatic speech recognition to detect and recognize the features of infant cries.

AI Can Now Translate a Babies Cries

By December Savage-Brown Jun 15, 2019

Being a parent is not easy. Being a first time parent is scary. Not understanding what your newborn cries mean can be downright terrifying.

First time parents have so much to worry about and now scientists are trying to make things a bit easier. Not only for the parents, but for doctors as well.

Researchers at Northern Illinois University have created an algorithm that can help translate a babies cries. The method would distinguish between a normal whimper and an abnormal one.

Although each babies cry does vary a bit, most tend to share similar speech patterns. According to BBC, “The team developed an algorithm based on an already existing automatic speech recognition system to detect and recognize the features of infant cries along with a technique called compressed sensing – a process that is able to reconstruct a signal based on very sparse data, especially in environments with high levels of background noise.”

New AI-powered app can tell why your baby won't stop crying 

Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) based tool that can

 By PTI Updated: June 07, 2019 11:18 IST

Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) based tool that can identify and distinguish between normal cry signals of babies and abnormal ones, such as those resulting from an underlying illness.

The method, described in the IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica (JAS), promises to be useful to parents at home as well as in healthcare settings, as doctors may use it to discern cries among sick children.

Hi-tech pillow that cancels out snoring 'could save millions of relationships'

SCIENCE by Louie Smith News Reporter

20:47, 30 Jan 2019Updated 20:47, 30 Jan 2019

Scientists have developed a high-tech pillow which cancels out snoring. A microphone placed close to the snorer is used to pick up every grunt and rumble. The audio is then analysed by an algorithm which calculates its cancelling “anti-noise”. When this sound is played through speakers in the non-snoring partner’s pillow, snore disturbance is reduced by 31 decibels.

The system has been developed by researchers at Northern Illinois University in the US and Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan.

It involves microphones and speakers inside the non-snoring partner’s pillow and a mic close to the snorer.

Researchers Create the Noise-Cancelling, Snore-Silencing Pillow of Your Partner’s Dreams

By Andrew Liszewski Published January 25, 2019, 5:21 pm ET 

Noise-cancelling headphones, like Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM3, do an impressive job of silencing the world around you—assuming you’re actually able to wear them. Wearing headphones to bed to silence a snorer next to you isn’t practical or comfortable. So researchers at Northern Illinois University are integrating similar technology into a pillow that’s custom-designed to reduce the disruptive sounds of snores.