Smartphones can tell if you’re drunk – by analysing the way you walk.
Scientists say the technology could save lives by deterring people who are over the drink-drive limit getting behind the wheel.
There is no fooling smartphone sensors, which can tell with 90 per cent accuracy if someone has had too much to drink by analysing changes in their gait.
The smart-test could help binge drinkers curb their consumption, get better treatment and put a stop to drink driving.
Study co-author Dr Brian Suffoletto, previously at the University of Pittsburgh, now at Stanford University in the United States, said: ‘We have powerful sensors we carry around with us wherever we go.
‘We need to learn how to use them to best serve public health.’
Dr Suffoletto, who has experienced first-hand the dangers of drinking too much alcohol, added: ‘I lost a close friend to a drinking and driving crash in college.
‘And as an emergency physician, I have taken care of scores of adults with injuries related to acute alcohol intoxication.
‘Because of this, I have dedicated the past 10 years to testing digital interventions to prevent deaths and injury related to excessive alcohol consumption.’
Adults aged between 21 and 43-years-old were recruited and asked to consume a mixed drink with enough vodka to produce a breath alcohol concentration of 0.2 per cent, or just over twice the drink/drive limit.
Volunteers, who were given an hour to finish the drink, had to complete a ‘walking task’ and had their breath analysed every hour for seven hours.
A smartphone was placed on each of the volunteer’s lower back and secured with an elastic belt during the walking task, which involved walking ten steps in a straight line, before turning around and walking back.
By measuring acceleration and different movements, including mediolateral (side to side), vertical (up and down) and anteroposterior (forward and backward), the smartphone was able to determine if the people were over the driving limit (0.08 per cent) correctly 90 per cent of the time.
Dr Suffoletto said: ‘This controlled lab study shows that our phones can be useful to identify ‘signatures’ of functional impairments related to alcohol.’
More research is needed to see if the test is still accurate when people carry their smartphone in their hand or pocket.
Dr Suffoletto added: ‘In five years, I would like to imagine a world in which, if people go out with friends and drink at risky levels, they get an alert at the first sign of impairment and are sent strategies to help them stop drinking and protect them from high-risk events like driving, interpersonal violence and unprotected sexual encounters.’
UK guidelines advise men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, equivalent to six pints of average strength beer (4 per cent).
Around 350,000 people are admitted to hospital in the UK every year where the main reason is due to drinking alcohol, according to the NHS.
Looking at how best to support, influence and communicate with people who are drunk, is also high on the researchers agenda.
The findings were published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
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