Smart speakers can analyze a baby's breathing and monitor for infant sleep apnea

Researchers at the University of Washington have devised a new app for smart speakers like Amazon's Echo to help parents monitor their baby's breathing. Called BreathJunior, the experimental app will be able to measure the rate of a baby's breathing and detect symptoms of sleep apnea. The team initially conducted a test of the device with five babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at a hospital in Washington. BreathJunior (pictured above) is an experimental app that monitors a baby's breathing using a smart speaker According to a report from MIT Tech Review, the team plans to eventually release the app as a commercial product via the company Sound Life Sciences. But first, they'll present the results of the trial at the upcoming MobiCom, a yearly conference on mobile computing in Los Cabos, Mexico.