Technabob » breathalyzer

Breathalyzer Jacket: More Drinks, More Bling

Lambert Varias — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:00:15 +0000

Matt Leggett has designed a jacket that gives him a rough estimate of his blood alcohol level. He just looks at the amount of vomit on it and he gets a very very very rough idea of how smashed he is. Just kidding. Matt’s much smarter than that, and so is his jacket. Breathe into the sensor at the collar, and the LEDs on the arm light up to indicate the wearer’s degree of inebriation.

Fashionable concept, but it would’ve been a lot better if it physically restrained you from drinking or driving – or moving – once you lit up all LEDs, and won’t let you go until your breath can only light up one or two of the lights.

[via Cargo Collective via Fashioning Tech]

Are You Drunk or Are You Not? This Tokyoflash Watch Will Tell You

Hazel Chua — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:45:25 +0000

Before you leave the club and head on over to your car to drive your tipsy self back home, I recommend that you run by your level of drunkenness via this Tokyoflash watch that has an Alcohol Test Function built within it.

Sounds like a good idea, right? Too bad that’s all this watch is right now, because it’s the latest concept design by the Tokyoflash Japan Product Design Studio.

The watch is loosely based on the same concept that breathalyzers also use. The only difference is, this one also functions as a watch and it’s also extremely portable and handy because it’s just on your wrist. To have the Tokyoflash watch analyze the alcohol content of your blood, just blow into the port and wait.

This LCD watch had a LED background which hopefully isn’t too bright, since you still have to look at it the morning after in case you’re hungover.

The following chart shows the results that you can expect after the watch has analyzed your breath for alcohol content.

I know a lot of people who would love to have this watch on their wrist.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Etiquette Checker Tells You if You’re a Drunk or Just Have Halitosis

Technabob — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 23:49:53 +0000

I love weird Japanese gadgets. Sure, the U.S. has plenty of breathalyzer type devices that tell you if you’re too blotto to drive, but the Japanese gadget makers had to outdo us. Their version can also tell you if your breath just plain stinks.

The Topland Etiquette Checker [JP] has an electro-chemical sensor which will tell your approximate blood-alcohol level. But the really useful part of this thing is the mode where it tells you if you’ve got bad breath.

The display offers 6 levels of breath stinkiness, ranging from from blue smiley face to red dead eyes. Or in laypersons terms, a “1″ means you’re ready to play kissy-face, a “4″ means it’s time for some Altoids, and a “6″ means Satan himself has curled up and died in your mouth, and not even drinking an entire bottle of Listerine will cure your breath, even though it should make you register a perfect score if you switch back to breathalyzer mode.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So if you’re inclined to tie one one regularly, or if you just like to eat onions, you can grab the Topland Etiquette Checker over at Japanese gadget importer Japan Trend Shop for about $63 (USD).

Karaoke Saver: the DIY Breathalyzer Microphone

Karen M. — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:30:29 +0000

You know how karaoke is really fun until someone drinks a little too much and starts majorly hogging the mic for their less-than-moving versions of American Pie and N*Sync B-sides? Now you can shut them down with cold, hard facts about their blood alcohol content, by employing this sneaky breathalyzer microphone.

This nifty project was created by Randy at F.A.T. He says, “The breathalyzer microphone is a system for the inconspicuous collection of blood-alcohol content level data sets. In other words, you can measure a person’s sobriety with a device, that for all intents and purposes, looks no different than a standard microphone.”

He kindly put the how-to up on Instructables, in case you’re inspired to make one of these for use on your drinking buddies. In essence, you rip a cheap karaoke mic apart, add some wires to the XLR and the switch, make a tricky bracket, attach it to an alcohol sensor you previously ordered from Thailand, and voila. To make it portable, you can use a tape deck or something else to hide a datalogger and arduino.

Then you just have someone talk or sing into the microphone, and use a computer to get the SD card readings to get the info. Now you know fo’ sho’, that mofo is DRUNK. And you have computer data to prove it to him.

[via Make:]