Your smartphone can test your blood-alcohol level

Plug-in device and app will work together to tell you when you shouldn’t drive after drinking.

By Douglas Newcomb Wed 1:17 PM

 

Had a drink or two and not sure whether you should drive? Now there’s an app for that. Or at least there will be soon.


Breathometer, a California start-up, has developed what it calls the world’s first smartphone blood-alcohol tester. It’s a small device that plugs into a smartphone’s headphone jack and works with an application to alert drivers when they’re over the legal limit for blood-alcohol content and shouldn’t drive.
Breathometer launched an Indiegogo crowdsourced funding campaign in hopes of raising money to produce the product and allow anyone interested to order it. Pledge levels range from $20 for a Breathometer device to $500 for a lifetime upgrade of all Breathometer products.

The Breathometer will work with iPhone and Android smartphones. In addition to informing imbibers that they could be too impaired to drive, the smartphone app will also include information on local transportation such as cab companies. The company said that it is seeking FDA approval for the Breathometer, that a patent is pending and that the product should be available by the summer.
While having a Breathometer and its companion smartphone app might be a good way to ensure you’re not driving while over the legal limit, there are plenty of other devices to measure blood-alcohol content, some of which sell for as little as $30 and fit on a keychain. Non-electronic crystal-based breath analyzers are available for less than $3.

But if you want to be truly safe, it’s best not to drink at all when you’ll be driving.


[Source: Breathometer]