5 ms·
Something like this could actually save lives. Take a photo of what bit you, then the app could provide an answer (with a confidence level) of "do I need to go
by Zhenya 9y ago
Something like this could actually save lives. Take a photo of what bit you, then the app could provide an answer (with a confidence level) of "do I need to go to the hospital" and provide a few example apps for various matches with level of danger.
Thanks for sharing!
- thrownaway954 9y agoit's Australia... the answer is always "YES!!!"
- zaarn 9y agoThe app could probably be optimized to the following: def spiderIsDeath(): return True Though surprisingly Australia does host some non-lethal animals and insects, including spiders. Most of the time people will be fine when bitten by spiders in Australia, treatment is quick in almost all cases.
- jonathanpoulter 9y agoI don't know if you get a chance to take a picture of what bites you most of the time... if ML could distinguish between different bites by just looking at skin, that would be incredibly useful.
- Zhenya 9y agoAgreed with this also! I wonder how different bites present themselves - if there is enough differentiation to provide a conclusive level feedback.
- dbaupp 9y agoI don't think it is actually likely to save lives, because spiders very rarely kill. As far as I can tell, there's been one death from a spider bite in Australia in 40 years: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/12/young-man-dies-after-spider-bite-during-australian-bushwalk/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/12/young-man-dies-a... .
- thomasfoster96 9y agoThat’s probably because it’s fairly widely known (in Australia) that if you’re bitten by a red-back or funnel-web spider that you seek medical attention, as you would for a venomous snake. A quickly treated bite is almost never fatal. The app helps people make the decision as to whether its a harmless spider or something that requires urgent medical attention.
- sjg007 9y agoI think if you are bit you should seek medical attention regardless of what an app says.
- synaesthesisx 9y agoAh, unless you live in the United States - then it becomes a question of whether it's worth it.
- dc_gregory 9y agoGenerally, a redback is fairly unpleasant, but doesn't require a trip to the hospital (for a healthy adult), so its unlikely to be fatal in most cases anyway (thankfully!). Funnel-webs are terrifying.
- dbaupp 9y agoYeah, definitely: I'm only trying to highlight that this sort of app wouldn't actually do much in practice because (Australian) society already deals with such bites well. If everyone in Australia had the app and used it all the time, it still would have (maybe) prevented at most one death in the last 40 years. In fact, since the numbers are so small, widespread useful of such an app seems like it may actually increase the number of deaths: instead of people seeing an unidentified spider and intense pain and getting treatment, people may get a false classification and so endure the pain without prompt-enough treatment ("the app says it's just a [something other than a funnelweb], I'll be fine!").
- tagh 9y agoThat is, if you haven't already squished it! Speaking as an Australian, common spiders which aren't poisonous (e.g., daddy long-legs, huntsmen, little jumpy-guys) is general knowledge. As is the really bad ones (funnel webs, redbacks). If you're bitten by something else, you generally assume it's somewhat poisonous and pay close attention to how you're feeling. This kind of approach would have more impact for snakes, whose venom can vary significantly -- although hanging around to snap a picture seems dangerous. Perhaps a suggestion system based on salient features?
- lgats 9y agoNow we just need to classify squished spiders.