iPhones Could Detect When Drivers Have Had Too Much To Drink

A new, preliminary study used the sensors in higher-end smartphones to measure a person’s gait and detect when they’ve had too much to drink for safe driving.

In the test, each person was given a vodka and lime juice drink hourly until they reached 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, the US and UK drink-drive limit. Each volunteer had a smartphone strapped to the back and every two hours had to walk a straight line for 10 steps, turn around and walk back.

Data from the smartphones correctly identified intoxication 90% of the time when those people were over the limit.

With cell phones and smart watches packing so many powerful sensors, it’s just a matter of time before we’ll be seeing (or feeling) alerts at the first sign of impairment with strategies to help curb drinking and driving.