Math problem with results, page-316

I've seen some spectacularly stupid posts on HotCopper over the last couple of years, but you've reset the bar waaay beyond where it was!

If we followed your guideline and abandoned every new idea the first time it failed to meet expectations, we'd still be waiting for a lightning strike before we could cook dinner!

Yes, something went seriously wrong with the trial. The sensible response is to analyse the events and the results and learn from it what you can. Not go bawling off to mummy because it didn't work.

At the very least we may come up with new constraints on how and where the data can be gathered using a mobile phone.

But a mobile phone isn't the only way to gather the data. Particularly because neither the algorithm nor the cough signature databases actually reside on the phone. You could gather the coughs using a microphone (or multiple microphones) and upload it using a web form where you'd entered the symptoms.

For remote areas, disaster zones, war zones, impoverished areas... wherever a phone would be most convenient... there's always the option of an inexpensive custom-built device. Looking at what's required at the client end you could churn out inexpensive micro-controller based units.

And in the worst case we may learn that the product cannot be made usable in an arbitrarily noisy environment. We've already seem some eminently sensible suggestions about having the app identify when it detects excessive ambient noise levels.

There is always some way to deal with a problem. Sometimes the work-around renders the product useless. Other times the work-around has almost no impact at all.

@hoofa , if we just walk away as you suggest without a second glance how would we ever find out?