A preliminary study by a team of researchers has revealed our sensor-filled smartphones are very good at telling when their owners are drunk.
As the BBC reports, the study's findings were published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The researchers monitored 22 participants all of whom were aged between 21 and 43. Every hour each participant consumed a vodka and lime juice drink until they had reached the drink-drive limit for the UK and US (80mg per 100ml of blood).
Every two hours, each participant was required to walk in a straight line for 10 steps, turn around, and walk a further 10 steps back. While doing so, a smartphone was attached to their back to monitor their gait. The phone managed to detect a participant was over the legal limit for driving with roughly 90 percent accuracy, which bodes well for this turning into a useful phone feature in future.
Dr. Brian Suffoletto, lead on the study and a member of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University, lost a friend in college due to drinking and driving. He's also used to dealing with injuries related to alcohol intoxication in hospital emergency rooms. "Because of this, I have dedicated the past 10 years to testing digital interventions to prevent deaths and injury related to excessive alcohol consumption," he explained.
If further study on a much larger scale continues to demonstrate a very high accuracy rate, then there's the potential for this to become a default feature of future smartphones. As it relies on the sensors already present in handsets, only software would be required to make it work on the vast majority of smartphones out there. Ultimately, being able to use your phone and a short walk to find out if it's safe to drive could be a real lifesaver, especially if the phone is linked to your car and automatically prevents it from starting.
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