BreathalEyes Finds Out If You’re Drunk By Scanning Your Eyes

Now that there’s pretty much an app for everything, it takes something pretty unique to grab our attention. You can get personal breathalyser devices, but how about one for your iPhone? Well it’s not really for your breath, but for your eyes – the pun-tastic BreathalEyes, an “alcohol awareness utility” which according to its makers, can “approximate an intoxicated individual’s blood alcohol content (BAC), anytime and anywhere!”

The app works by monitoring your eye movement, looking for something called “Horizontal Gaze Nysyagmus”, which can approximate a person’s Blood Alcohol Content. For the app to work the test subject will have to have consumed alcohol and have a sober friend recording the eye movement via the iPhone. The app’s creators maintain that the app has an effective range of 0.2% – 0.17% (+/- .02%) BAC, and is for “entertainment purposes only” and that they do not take any legal responsibility.

So it’s a bit of a tricky app with a number of conditions on its uses, that only a sober friend can use it, and that it should only be used on people who have actually been drinking, because it could conclude that a sober person is in fact drunk based on their eye movement, when perhaps you’re just tired and your eyes are twitching. This indicates that an app like this cannot be depended upon to be entirely accurate and it’s unclear what they makers of the app are trying to achieve.

BreathalEyes illustrates the problem that can face app developers who want to make something serious and useful, but because of the very nature of apps – that they are a once-off purchase designed to work independently – they cannot control how users use the app. The makers are wise to state this because even though it initially seems a little bit flippant when attached to the serious issue of drink driving, the market for apps is indeed predominantly for entertainment purposes only.

Once the app is bought by the consumer, the makers lose control over how the app is used, which limits how effective this app could be as it will most likely not be used in a controlled environment. At any rate it’s an interesting concept for an app and illustrates perhaps how apps could be better utilised in the future.