A smartphone as a watchdog? Our constant digital companion could soon be used to monitor alcohol consumption while partying. Researchers have now shown that smartphones can use the change in gait to determine whether the owner has drank too much.
Control consumption with a smartphone
The in “Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs” published research showed that cell phones actually have the potential to monitor alcohol consumption. Using sensors in the device, they measure deviations in gait, which provide information about the alcohol level. In this way, the smartphone can tell whether the person is staggering slightly or is swaying heavily drunk.
Real-time information about the alcohol level of celebrants could make an important contribution to reducing consumption, To avoid alcohol poisoning and to prevent drink-driving, according to research director Dr. Brian Suffoletto. There is also the option of automatically informing a previously specified person if alcohol consumption gets out of control.
Handy recognized the fitness to drive
22 volunteers aged 21 to 43 years participated in the study. In the laboratory, they were given a mixed drink with vodka that had enough alcohol to achieve an average breath alcohol concentration of 1 mg / l – this corresponds to around 2.0 per mille. During the following seven hours, the level was regularly analyzed and the test subjects had to complete a simple task every hour: walk 10 steps along a straight line, then turn around and back again. A smartphone was attached to her lower back with an elastic band. It recognized the horizontal and vertical deviations from the “straight” gear and was able to do so Person’s alcohol level determine. In around 90 percent of the cases, it successfully recorded when the participants had a level above 0.8 per thousand – the legal limit for driving a car in most US states.
Every smartphone can
The advantage of this: Almost every adult has a smartphone. The sensors for motion measurement are already included. Most devices have what is known as an acceleration sensor, which is responsible for switching the screen from portrait to landscape format. “We have powerful sensorsthat we carry around with us everywhere, ”says Suffoletto. These should also be used to best serve public health.
Maybe in action soon
The number of study participants was relatively small, as it was a “proof-of-concept” study. It should only show whether smartphones would be suitable for such a purpose. In addition, the cell phone was on the test subjects’ lower back, which does not correspond to everyday reality. Further investigations must therefore still follow.
Research director Suffoletto is convinced, however, that digital interventions offer promising opportunities excessive alcohol consumption and avoid its consequences. His commitment to this topic is not only an academic but also a personal concern. He has already lost a close friend to drink driving. With the current research, he now hopes to make a contribution to protecting people from excessive consumption and the associated consequences such as drink-driving, violence and sexual abuse. The focus here is not only on identifying alcohol-related impairments. In addition to the warning, those affected should also receive strategies that will help them quit.
Here Dr. Weigl, why we have to go to the toilet more often when we drink alcohol and to what extent the urine color is related to it:
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