What if in the future your smartphone becomes your Sam? Scientists are currently studying this possibility. Thanks to the various sensors on an iPhone, they are able to determine if you have consumed too much alcohol while driving. If their solution is interesting on paper, it could only be viable in the more or less near future.
Researchers want your iPhone to detect when you’re too drunk to drive // Source: Frandroid
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“The one who drives is the one who does not drink”. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have probably never heard this slogan of French road safety, but no matter what, their approach is part of the same desire to limit risks. Thus, they are working on a solution allowing assess your state of intoxication using your smartphone.
The smartphone, this marvelous concentrate of technology
Accelerometer, gyroscope, compass … our smartphones integrate a slew of sensors that we use daily without realizing it. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh had the good idea to ask them to fight against alcohol while driving. But how do they do Jamy?
Thanks to the various sensors of an iPhone and an ingenious algorithm, scientists are able to identify the approach of a user who is a little tipsy and determine whether his physical behavior is compatible with driving. To put it simply, the smartphone would be able to detect when you are no longer walking very straight. The researchers thus obtained an accuracy rate of 92.5% in their tests on 22 subjects who ingested 0.2% of alcohol.
Some significant limits
If these results are encouraging, they still deserve some clarification. First, the tests were carried out only on subjects carrying the smartphone in the lower back (backpack or back pocket of pants). No test was done on a positioning in the front pocket or in the hands which nevertheless represent the majority of cases.
Then the tests indicate whether the wearer of the smartphone has drunk too much to drive without any precise data. The protocol manages to report when the subject exceeds the 0.08% alcohol mark (legal limit in the United States) but does not indicate how much the subject has exceeded this limit. In addition, some people can drink more than two doses of alcohol (limit authorized by French law) without showing physical signs of this blood alcohol level. However, if they feel fit and have a normal gait, they are still unable to drive.
The university researchers themselves admit it: this study is more a proof of feasibility than a real method of blood alcohol screening. Still, it turns out to be encouraging and that progress in artificial intelligence could well transform our smartphones in alcohol tests in the future. « Future research should determine whether these findings reproduce in situ ” say the researchers in their conclusion. In the meantime, Sam is therefore not about to be unemployed.
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