An ordinary tweet about a
case of the flu just might become a part of scientific research. Computer
scientists at Johns Hopkins University
are using Twitter to track the number of flu cases in the United States.
The researchers have
developed a way to use machine learning to track flu cases in real time and
categorize the tweets as either simply chatter about the flu or reports of
actual infections.
"Our
system learns that phrases like 'at home with the flu' indicate a real
infection while 'tired of hearing about the flu' is irrelevant chatter,"
Michael Paul, a doctoral candidate in Johns Hopkins' computer science
department and a member of the research team.
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