New question for iPod: Am iDrunk?

These days, the iPod can be many things. A musical instrument, a gaming device, a phone, a taxi hailer, a trail tracker.

Apparently, it can also be an alcohol breathalyzer.

With iBreath, a $79 accessory that plugs into the base of the iPod, you can perform your own field sobriety test. The person using it exhales into a retractable “blow wand” and the internal sensor measures the blood-alcohol content. Within two seconds, it displays the results on an LED screen. A reading of .08 or above sets off an alarm, signaling a blood-alcohol level above the legal driving limit in all 50 states.

“We are absolutely not advocating drinking and driving, but we know that people just don’t observe that,” said Don Bassler, chief executive and founder of David Steele Enterprises in Newport Beach, an online retailer and creator of the iBreath. “We don’t want people to think that this makes it all OK, but it’s a safety device that we hope people will use, and it may save lives.” 

Not everyone is as optimistic about its prospects in terms of preventing alcohol-related incidents.

Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said she was worried that young people would use the breathalyzer for drinking games, to see who can score the highest reading. (iBreath caps the readings at .20, more than twice the legal definition of intoxification.)

Read the story.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Comments

[Deepdiver]

No wonder no one takes MADD seriously as an organization. They don't like devices that measure bac easily, because they think it might encourage kids to drink. Moronic. There are already plenty of bac measuring devices on the market. This woman uses the same arguement that right wingers use against condoms and sex education in school. It might cause someone to drink or have sex. No, it might prevent someone already doing it from causing even more problems.

[Austin Lee]

I think the iBreath is the next best thing to sliced bread! This is a great tool for those drinking just a tad more than a designated driver, and still needing to drive. Makes sense to have a tool that tells you if you’ve had too much to drink. Austin

[opeongo sky]

Let the kids drink and play with the devise, if they must. They will soon enough learn to respect alcohol, devise or not. You cannot protect your kids from everything anyway. In the end they will have to learn to control themselves as we have. You do want your kids to grow up to be responsible adults don't you?

Let live and learn.

[Ken]

MADD needs to address their own problems and reevaluate what it is that they care about and what is their goal. This device is technology and it is affordable. If it does the intended job accurately than there is no reason to cry outrage and ban. Should we ban chairs with wheels on them just in case a kid has a few drinks and then rolls over someones toes? Exactly the same weak argument