Amazon Files for Patent to Detect User Illness and Emotional State by Analyzing Voice Data - Voicebot

Amazon yesterday filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to detecting physical and emotional wellbeing of users based on interactions captured in voice data. The first example in the patent application depicts a user coughing while asking Alexa about being hungry. Alexa responds by suggesting a chicken soup recipe and when refused then offers to order cough drops with one-hour delivery. The voice recognition system is using sounds such as a cough or sniffle to determine if a user is unwell. However, the patent is not limited by these sounds and could be extended to different types of normal speech.