BrainChip Inc. and NaNose Medical Successfully Detect COVID-19 in Exhaled Breath with Fast High-Accuracy Results
February 24 2021 - 6:19PM
Business Wire
Akida AI chip ideal for hand-held diagnostic
testing device
BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX:BRN), a leading provider of
ultra-low power high performance artificial intelligence
technology, today announced progress in testing with the NaNose
(Nano Artificial Nose) where patients’ exhaled breath samples were
tested for COVID-19.
NaNose Medical technology, based on the artificial nose
developed at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, has the
same sensitivity to minute quantities of Volatile Organic Compounds
(VOCs) as a dog’s nose. It has been tested by the Technion since
2017 to identify diseases including Parkinson's, cancers, kidney
failure, multiple sclerosis and infectious diseases such as
COVID-19. NaNose Medical collected samples from 130 patients and
sent nanomaterial sensor data to BrainChip’s Research Institute in
Perth, Western Australia, which configured and trained its Akida™
neuromorphic processor to interpret the data using AI/ML. The
system detected the instances of COVID-19 between a disease group
and a healthy control group and Akida learned to recognize patterns
of VOC biomarkers associated with an infection within seconds with
a high level of accuracy in a minimal time frame. NaNose Medical is
currently collecting samples from three primary worldwide locations
and will work with BrainChip to evaluate the data.
A study in China confirmed that breath sensor data is more
accurate than the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) test typically used. Accurate testing is key at early
stages, even before symptoms manifest, and after treatment before
patients are discharged into their communities.
Using the NaNose Medical sensor array to collect the data, and
Akida to perform the diagnosis, can have a higher rate of
reliability than current testing methods and poses less risk to
medical professionals because no saliva or mucus samples are
collected. COVID-19 is known to be spread through respiratory
droplets, and more recently has been confirmed to be airborne.
Because Akida’s “Edge AI” is a complete neural processor that
does not require an external CPU, memory, or Deep Learning
Accelerator (DLA), and because it is ultra-low power, it offers a
realistic opportunity for an inexpensive hand-held diagnostic
testing tool akin to a breathalyzer.
“Artificial intelligence in medicine and healthcare is an
emerging field and one in which we are eager to contribute with our
edge AI processing solution at the Edge, for the benefit of science
and humanity,” said Louis DiNardo, BrainChip CEO. Both Louis
DiNardo, Brainchip CEO and Orit Marom Albeck, NaNose Medical CEO
said: “Using the NaNose Medical artificial nose, and Akida’s
artificial brain, is a potential breakthrough in accurate, fast,
inexpensive, widespread testing with the potential to control
outbreaks and reduce this disease’s death toll.”
AI/ML is transformational in medical and healthcare, from
bioscience research and pathology to primary care. Akida
neuromorphic computing and advanced neural networking processors
support new and evolving uses such as identifying disease markers
in blood or breath, detecting abnormalities in X-rays, CT scans,
and MRIs, cancer diagnostics, device/sensor data, and more.
Akida brings artificial intelligence to the edge in a way that
existing technologies are not capable of. The solution is
high-performance, small, ultra-low power and enables a wide array
of edge capabilities. The Akida Neuromorphic System-on-Chip,
licensable IP, and Akida Development Environment machine learning
framework are targeted for applications and devices including Smart
Home, Smart City, Smart Healthcare and Smart Transportation.
About Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN)
BrainChip is a global technology company that is producing a
groundbreaking neuromorphic processor that brings artificial
intelligence to the edge in a way that is beyond the capabilities
of other products. The chip is high performance, small, ultra-low
power and enables a wide array of edge capabilities that include
on-chip training, learning and inference. The event-based neural
network processor is inspired by the spiking nature of the human
brain and is implemented in an industry standard digital process.
By mimicking brain processing BrainChip has pioneered a processing
architecture, called Akida™, which is both scalable and flexible to
address the requirements in edge devices. At the edge, sensor
inputs are analyzed at the point of acquisition rather than through
transmission via the cloud to a data center. Akida is designed to
provide a complete ultra-low power and fast AI Edge Network for
vision, audio, olfactory and smart transducer applications. The
reduction in system latency provides faster response and a more
power efficient system that can reduce the large carbon footprint
of data centers.
Additional information is available at
https://www.brainchipinc.com
Follow BrainChip on Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/BrainChip_inc Follow BrainChip on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/7792006
Additional information regarding NaNose Medical is available at
https://nanosemed.com
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JPR Communications Mark Smith, 818-398-1424 marks@jprcom.com
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