# Federated Few-shot Learning for Cough Classification with Edge Devices

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.01076 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01076/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 41 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Sep 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Communication-Efficient Learning of Deep Networks from Decentralized Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05629/) (2016)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [Prototypical Networks for Few-shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.05175/) (2017)
- [CBAM: Convolutional Block Attention Module](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06521/) (2018)
- [Learning to Compare: Relation Network for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06025/) (2017)
- [Few-Shot Learning with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.04043/) (2017)
- [Temporal Convolution for Real-time Keyword Spotting on Mobile Devices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03814/) (2019)
- [COVID-19 Cough Classification using Machine Learning and Global Smartphone Recordings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.01926/) (2020)
- [Few-Shot Keyword Spotting With Prototypical Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.14463/) (2020)
- [A Lightweight CNN Model for Detecting Respiratory Diseases from Lung Auscultation Sounds using EMD-CWT-based Hybrid Scalogram](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.04402/) (2020)
- [Federated Few-Shot Learning with Adversarial Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00365/) (2021)
- [Evaluation and comparison of federated learning algorithms for Human Activity Recognition on smartphones](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.16918/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Adaptive Federated Few-Shot Rare-Disease Diagnosis with Energy-Aware Secure Aggregation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.00976/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Automatically classifying cough sounds is one of the most critical tasks for the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases. However, collecting a huge amount of labeled cough dataset is challenging mainly due to high laborious expenses, data scarcity, and privacy concerns. In this work, our aim is to develop a framework that can effectively perform cough classification even in situations when enormous cough data is not available, while also addressing privacy concerns. Specifically, we formulate a new problem to tackle these challenges and adopt few-shot learning and federated learning to design a novel framework, termed F2LCough, for solving the newly formulated problem. We illustrate the superiority of our method compared with other approaches on COVID-19 Thermal Face & Cough dataset, in which F2LCough achieves an average F1-Score of 86%. Our results show the feasibility of few-shot learning combined with federated learning to build a classification model of cough sounds. This new methodology is able to classify cough sounds in data-scarce situations and maintain privacy properties. The outcomes of this work can be a fundamental framework for building support systems for the detection and diagnosis of cough-related diseases.