Diagnose the onset of dementia using your voice and this smartphone app
Being able to diagnose cognitive conditions using just a smartphone, even if you have no formal access to healthcare, will help millions of people catch the signs of dementia earlier, meaning they can seek treatment sooner.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2018) 'Diagnose the onset of dementia using your voice and this smartphone app', 311 Institute, 15 May. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/new-smartphone-app-uses-your-voice-to-diagnose-the-onset-of-dementia/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
WinterLight Labs in the US have just announced they’ve developed a “proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) based diagnostic platform” that can “objectively assess and monitor cognitive health.”
In laymans terms this means we now have a way to detect and diagnose cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimers and Dementia using nothing more than a smartphone app and our voice, and it’s the continuation of a trend I’m seeing that’s helping democratise access to healthcare and give hundreds of millions of people around the world who still have no formal access to primary or secondary healthcare access to powerful smartphone based detection and diagnostic tools that help them detect the onset of general disease, heart conditions, inherited genetic disorders, pancreatic cancers, and skin cancer with nothing more than a smartphone and a free app.
Winterlight’s platform uses AI to analyse the users natural speech to detect, diagnose and monitor the appearance and onset of cognitive conditions including Aphasia, Alzheimers, dementia and more by analysing short one minute samples of their speech, and the app can also characterise the speaker's acoustic, cognitive, and linguistic state, including articulation, lexical diversity, semantic content, and syntactic complexity as well.
Using samples of a person’s speech, WinterLight’s platform analyses hundreds of linguistic cues and can detect Alzheimers, dementia and other conditions with accuracies between 82 percent and 100 percent, as reported in their peer reviewed academic studies.
WinterLight’s platform also provides major improvements over current pencil and paper tests which can be coarse, challenging, costly, subjective, and time consuming to administer, additionally the platform also has applications in clinical trials, long term and primary care, and speech language pathology, and as the number of people with dementia and other cognitive conditions continues to increase this app couldn’t come soon enough to help people identify their onset, and then, hopefully, help them get the care they need.
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Why does this matter?
Being able to diagnose cognitive conditions using just a smartphone, even if you have no formal access to healthcare, will help millions of people catch the signs of dementia earlier, meaning they can seek treatment sooner.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
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Sources and further reading
- WinterLight Labs winterlightlabs.com
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 15 May 2018. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2018). Diagnose the onset of dementia using your voice and this smartphone app. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/new-smartphone-app-uses-your-voice-to-diagnose-the-onset-of-dementia/
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