There’s a new entry in the rapidly expanding wearable tech category of “Who Would Buy This?”: a patch that sends your phone a text when you’re “too drunk.”
What’s your phone going to do, call a cab? If you’re that drunk, you probably can’t even focus on a text message. And chances are pretty good that you know you’re drunk, although “too drunk” is a relative condition unless you’re driving. In addition, anyone who would be that careful about drinking would be that careful without technology, we’re guessing.
Nonetheless, researchers — meaning this product does not yet exist — at the University of California San Diego departments of nanoengineering, and electrical and computer engineering have come up with an electronic tattoo device that sticks to your arm and produces small doses of pilocarpine, a sweat-inducing drug. Having forced you to sweat, it then analyzes the sweat for ethanol, the stuff in booze that makes you drunk. Above a certain level, it sends the info to your smartphone or another computer device (maybe the bar’s Uber account?) via Bluetooth.
One article we read said, “Imagine a future where you can tap a button to let your sensor know you’re heading to the bar, and it can notify you when you’re getting close to—or exceeding—the legal limit.”