Cough please. No really, cough into your Apple iPhone and you may soon be able to get an instant diagnosis as to what's going on, and if you need to seek a more "traditional" kind of medical attention.

A new iPhone application, being developed by a collection of American and Australian scientists of STAR Analytical Services, will allow users to simply cough on their phone (kind of gross, but bear with us) and determine if they have the flu, pneumonia or a range of other respiratory conditions.

The Telegraph is reporting that the software will "compare the patient's cough to a pre-recorded database of coughs, containing the sounds of all respiratory diseases from people of both sexes and various ages, weights and other variables." The database currently has a few dozen recordings but will literally need thousands before it can be released.

The software is currently being run on a computer but once complete, will be easily converted into a smartphone application. There's no word when this will be released or how much it will cost.