April 6, 2012

Can my iPhone be my DD?

For my friends that enjoy drinking, but don't want to drive, let me present some solutions to you. I hope that you won't drive tonight -- it's Good Friday after all. If anything, tonight's a night to soberly reflect. But for those of you that will, put the effort in to keep yourself and other drivers on the road safe. Some quick drunk driving stats from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Commission:
  • America has more drunk drivers than most countries have people.
  • drunk driving costs EACH adult in the USA 500 dollars every year.
  • between midnight and 3:00 AM, drunk driving takes a life every 23 minutes.
  • each year, the USA loses 11,000 people to drunk driving, the same amount as 21 jumbo jet crashes.
  • Every day, there are 1440 injuries and 21 deaths.
  • Thanks to drunk driving, 200 people won't be able to make it through the first day of the New Year. 
So here are some apps that could thoroughly change your night, your wallet, and your life.



Showmemybuzz
The way that Showmemybuzz works is that it takes your time drinking, your amount and type of drinks consumed, your height, weight, and age to determine an estimate of your blood alcohol content (BAC). It will render a decision on whether or not you will be able to drive yourself or need a taxi. However, no matter what the results, it will tell you to pursue a ride instead of drive. Remember, this is an estimate and not completely accurate. Remember, that .08 is really easy to go over.

BreathalEyes
This is an app that measures the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) in your eyes in order to determine BAC.  The HGN is the amount of rapid eye movement caused by consuming alcohol. "All you need to help your friends and family make better informed decisions when drinking alcohol is BreathalEyes on your smartphone and a few seconds of their time" is the slogan on the official website. However, it requires three things: a steady hand, a stable drinker (recipitant), and a decent amount of light. This also is an estimate and is not as accurate as a breathalizer.

Intoxicheck
This app is a series of self-performed tests that measure your cognitive ability after consuming alcohol. These tests were scientifically proven to show the amount of disarray that alcohol consumption produces. The separate tests that are given are the following: reaction time, memory, manikin, pattern recognition, button tapping, and code substitution. Innocorp, the developer is incredibly dedicated to preventing injuries and stopping loss of life. This app is the best of the three so far, in terms of clinically seeing how well an intoxicated person performs.

Stearclear
This app is for those of you that drove to the bar. While it can be frustrating to coordinate to find a ride to get to your car the next day, Stearclear developed a way to remedy that. With one touch of a button, the user can signal a local Stearclear driving team to take them and their car home. The way it works is that one member of the team will drive and the second member will follow along in a chase car. While this may be a little more expensive because of paying for the drivers and the tip, overall this is the most prudent desicion to make because it will prevent your car getting towed or broken into, and it will make sure you get home safe.

In conclusion, it is important to know that drinking may be expensive, and these solutions may be more costly, but definitely worth it. For my friends at Beer Me Bro, what do you think of these solutions?

2 comments:

  1. Nice review of Apps! :) I think they provide more entertainment value than a credible solution. The first App is pretty funny.

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  2. That's kind of what I thought at first too! While some of them can be for some legitimate help, I think that it would be especially entertaining to use these applications while under the influence (just for laughs).

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