In a statement, the university said that with the “innovative system,” the driver has only to blow onto a sensor that connects via Bluetooth to Smartphones equipped with the corresponding app, and a real-time reading will show alcohol levels.
The project was developed by UTAD’s engineering department as part of a Masters in electronic engineering and computers carried out by student Ana Patrícia Queirós Gomes, under the guidance of researchers Lio Fidalgo Gonçalves and Raul Morais dos Santos.
The university said the “smartwatch wearable” alcohol meter, which is complemented by an android mobile app, allows for a “quick and easy estimation of the blood alcohol level by analogy of the amount of alcohol detected on the breath.”
Those involved in the project said the final system presented “very consistent and proportional” results, whose precision was confirmed by comparing readings with others obtained from devices currently used by the
police.
The researchers explained that with the app “drivers can check the blood alcohol rate at any time” and they believe that this portable form of monitoring could achieve “great progress in the prevention of road
accidents.”
“The system is intended to be portable, easy to handle and reasonably discreet in order to be transported with the user in their daily life, allowing a convenient monitoring and control of what may be a health problem or only a sporadic situation”, the developers said.
They added that the proposed system aims to provide “a step forward, albeit still only small, in the fight against mortality associated with road accidents, as well as the disease that is alcoholism and which is part of Portuguese reality.”