IIT Gandhinagar researchers develop AI-based tool to detect COVID-19 through chest X-ray

IIT Gandhinagar researchers have developed an AI-bsed deep learning tool that can help to detect the coronavirus in a person through a chest X-Ray images.

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar has developed an Artificial Intelligence-based deep learning tool to detect the coronavirus from chest X-ray images. The online tool will indicate the probability if a person is infected with coronavirus or not. It can be used for a quick preliminary diagnosis before the medical test. It is being tested by the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH).

"Given the limited testing facilities for COVID-19, there is a rush to develop AI tools for quick analysis using X-rays. Developing a reliable tool requires a combination of the right algorithms and data. This is where our tool would prove useful, that can be trained for diagnostic purposes and made available for wider use," Kushpal Singh Yadav, an MTech student at IIT Gandhinagar, Department of Computer Science Engineering, said.

The IIT researchers used the data of the X-ray images that are available on the internet of the infected person. They trained a machine learning architecture using deep learning algorithms with these images.

"The model that we used has 12 layers of the neural network, which is similar to the neurons in the human brain. The deep learning method has the advantage that it learns the disease diagnosing features from the X-ray images in an automatic way. Our tool also uses images from other lung infections such as tuberculosis, pneumonia to ensure the specificity of detection of COVID from other lung diseases," Yadav explained.

Krishna Prasad Miyapuram, the associate professor of cognitive science and computer science, who supervised the IIT project claimed that the tool outperforms other such high-tech devices available globally.

"Moreover, it uses simple machine learning architecture, which makes it stand out over others. However, the tool is only indicative and clinical consultation is essential to confirm the diagnosis but it can really help reduce the burden on our medical infrastructure at present," he said.

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