Population Health News

Deep Learning Model Able to Detect Emotion Related to COVID-19

Researchers have developed an emotion detection AI model that could be used to help emergency responders direct people to mental health services during a pandemic, a new study finds.

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Source: Getty Images

By Shania Kennedy

- A new study published in Applied Soft Computing found that the content of emergency response phone calls could be analyzed and classified by a deep learning model based on emotion detection, and then used to assist callers experiencing mental breakdowns.

Emotion detection is a subset of sentiment analysis that aims to extract emotions from text, speech, or images. The researchers posit that emotions determine human behavior, making the development of a method to recognize emotions automatically crucial for use during global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The researchers state that a deep learning-driven emotion detection model could be used to help understand people’s emotions, which, in addition to coordination with NGOs and volunteers, would assist those in need during a crisis and help avoid some pandemic-related emotional turmoil.