New Android app may know you're sick before you do

(2011 Gingerd, Inc.)

Feeling sick? Stressed? Ask your smartphone. A new startup just unveiled an Android app that uses your smartphone's activity to detect the first signs of cold, flu, or depression.

Reported on tech website Mashable on June 24, the new app is the brainchild of three MIT alumni who recently launched a startup dubbed GINGER.io. The new app, DailyData, tracks data on your behaviors, detecting changes in your SMS and calling habits, as well as the places you go. "Early stages of depression, for instance, often involve changes in how someone communicates," writes Mashable.

The technology, according to the company, is based on more than 320,000 hours of data from research participants' smartphone usage, which, according to the founders, predicts the onset of illness, such as colds, flu, and depression.

When the app detects possible sickness or depression, it will send you an alert when your behaviors deviate from the norm.

A similar smartphone app devised to track your moods and experiences provides an on-the-go therapist to help with everything from anxiety problems to trying to quit smoking. The app, Mobile Therapy, offers a "mood map" to chart energy levels, sleep patterns, and diet, while also providing therapeutic exercises to ease stress.

Learn more about the DailyData app: http://www.getdailydata.com

Read more about mood-tracking apps: http://techsling.com/2011/06/12-important-mobile-apps-for-mental-health/