Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey say smartphone sensor data combined with machine learning could detect whether someone is under the influence of marijuana.
The researchers set out to develop a proof-of-concept way to passively detect cannabis use as an alternative to existing detection measures, such as blood, urine or saliva tests. Their findings were published in September in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
"Adverse effects of acute cannabis intoxication have been reported by young adults, with associated consequences such as poor academic and work performance, and injuries and fatalities due to driving while 'high' on cannabis," the authors wrote in the study.
The authors conducted a study experiment involving 57 young adults who reported using cannabis at least twice a week. The participants were asked to complete three surveys a day over a 30-day period that asked how high they were feeling at a given time, as well as when they had last used cannabis and the quantity consumed. In total, the participants reported 451 episodes of cannabis use.
The participants were also asked to download an app that analyzed GPS data, phone logs, accelerometer data and other smartphone sensors and usage statistics.
When only looking at the time of day, the algorithm was able to accurately detect an episode of cannabis use with 60 per cent accuracy. The smartphone sensor data alone was also able to produce an accuracy rate of 67 per cent.
However, smartphone sensor data combined with time-of-day data resulted in an accuracy rate of 90 per cent.
“Using the sensors in a person’s phone, we might be able to detect when a person might be experiencing cannabis intoxication and deliver a brief intervention when and where it might have the most impact to reduce cannabis-related harm,” said corresponding author and Rutgers professor Tammy Chung in a news release.
The GPS data was the most important dataset when it came to detecting cannabis use. The researchers found that participants would tend to travel shorter distances while they were high. Accelerometer data was the second most important feature, as it can be used to measure body movements.
The researchers say this is the first study to look at how smartphone sensors could be used to detect cannabis intoxication.
Chung and her colleagues were also involved in a similar study from 2018 that investigated whether smartphone data could detect heavy drinking episodes. In that study, they found that an algorithm that measured smartphone-usage patterns, such as screen-on duration, typing speed and time of day, could detect heavy drinking episodes with 91 per cent accuracy.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
Spanish state prosecutors recommended Wednesday that an investigating judge shelve a probe into another alleged case of tax fraud by pop star Shakira.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.