If you are drunk, there is no need to worry as a new Smartphone can tell you if you had too much drink or not. A new study in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs said that the Smartphone can detect if you are drunk by checking the changes in your walk.
Lead researcher Brian Suffoletto (Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine), said that the smart phones would help in real time information about intoxication. This could help people in reducing their alcohol consumption and also prevent Wheat from drunken driving
For Surtoletto, who had lost a friend to drinking and driving accident, the research on smart phones and alcoholism was more than academic. It was quite personal. More over as an emergency physician, Suffoletto had also come across many young people who were injured because of intoxication. As such, the doctor had been for the past ten years testing digital interventions to prevent deaths and injury related to alcohol consumption.
Sulfoletto and his colleagues recruited 22 adults aged 21 to 43 years. They were given a mixed drink with enough vodka to produce a breath alcohol concentration of 20 percent. The breath alcohol concentration of these adults were tested hourly for seven hours and also had to undergo i walking task. They also placed a Smartphone on each participant’s lower back. The Smartphone measured acceleration and mediolateral (side to side), vertical (up and down) and anteroposterior (forward and backward) movements. Though the phone was strapped to the hack, it is not the way people usually carry phones. They usually carry in pockets or in hand. The researchers plan to do a comprehensive study on this. The researchers note that the study was a small one but was “proof-of-concept study that provides a foundation for future research on using smartphones to remotely detect alcohol related impairments.
Suffoletto was quoted as saying that there would be a world where peope get alerts of impairment when they drink at risky levels.