A new smartphone app can reportedly tell when someone is already drunk, based on their ability to still walk straight.
The upcoming application can determine if a person is drunk in under ten steps. Researchers claim that the app works with close to 93 percent accuracy, detecting if someone has gone over the UK drink-drive limits. The app is also designed to trigger an alert to inform the user when to leave the party. The details and results of their experiment will be published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
A New Purpose for the Modern Smartphone
A modern smartphone is equipped with a variety of sensors, most of them sensitive enough to pick up small changes in temperature, speed, and position. One of the sensors installed in smartphones is an accelerometer, which contains axis-based motion sensors. It helps the smartphone identify its orientation.
'Smartphones can pick up changes in gait, and could in future send alerts to someone's partner or friend that they have had too much to drink and need to be picked up to go home," explained Dr. Brian Suffoletto from the University of Pittsburgh, lead author in the study.
"Or someone's phone could ping to let them know when to leave before they do something they might regret the next day," Dr. Suffoletto added. He said: "We all know from the movies and cartoons that, when someone is drunk, they tend to wobble a bit walking down the street."
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"Actually walking and balancing is pretty complex, so it's a good sign of impairment," the lead author added.
The new technology works by analyzing the app user's position and movement in all directions - forward and backward, up and down, and side to side - as they walk.
Testing it on How Drunk and Sober People Walked
Developers of the new technology tested it on seventeen participants aged 21 to 43 years old. These participants were given vodka and lime juice drinks over an hour until they were found to have 80 milligrams per 100 milliliters of blood - the UK drink-drive limit.
The participants were also requested to stay in a laboratory for some seven hours until they were no longer drunk. During their stay, the intoxicated people were also asked to walk 20 steps back and forth in a straight line once every two hours.
During the tests, researchers observed peculiar behavior when drunk people tried walking. Participants either lurched while moving, or suddenly took fast forward steps. Others swayed, with their steps going sideways instead of going straight forward.
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In total, researchers recorded 761 steps from drunk people, and 210 when they were sober. Testing their hypotheses, researchers managed to guess whether people were drunk or not, 15 out of 17 attempts. The smartphone with the app was attached to the participants' lower back through a belt. It missed detecting drunk people on one of the seven tests. The app misjudged that a sober person was drunk.
However, in its objective of detecting drunk people, the app in development posted an overall accuracy of about 92.5 percent.
To know more about UK's drink and drive, watch the video below:
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