Every year, thousands of people lose their lives because they chose to drive after knocking down one too many shots. A lot of campaigns have been launched to increase people’s awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving. But bars can also take matters into their own hands, too, by letting dudes know when they’ve had too much to drink after they take a leak.
It’s called the Pee Analyzer and it basically tests a person’s urine for alcohol content. So how does it work? Well, every patron gets an RFID parking ticket when they drop their cars off at valet. After they pee, an RFID reader near the urinal takes note of the results. If it’s over the limit, a sign lights up, telling the person to call a cab or use a drive home service because they’ve had one too many drinks.
They might choose to ignore the urinal’s advice (or are too drunk to notice), but the valet won’t.
When the partied-out patron goes to retrieve his car, he has to hand his RFID parking card over to the valet. The valet scans it and an alert pops up if the customer tested high on his urine. Those customers are then asked to call a cab or take advantage of the club’s drive-home service.
Clever system, huh?
VIA [ Geekologie ]
We're not sure if Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos of the University of Patras in Greece like a tipple or not, but the pair have developed two algorithms that, when used with thermal imaging, could pick out drunk people in crowds. What is it that betrays your best intentions to look sober? As always, your face. Booze causes the blood-vessels in your visage to dilate, and the researchers used this principle to compare facial scans against a database of tipple-free mug shots. Likewise the duo found that when under the influence, the nose gets warmer, while the forehead cools -- another visual check that the infrared can help identify. The hope is that using this technology, law-enforcement can make a judgement call based on more than just your wonky walk. But in our experience, the troublemakers are pretty good at outing themselves.
Scientists develop pair of algorithms that could enable thermal cameras to pick out drunk people originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Alpha Galileo | Email this | Comments It happens even to the best people you know. They might have had too much to drink at a party that was unexpectedly wild, and now they’re too drunk to drive themselves home. The unfortunate thing to this is that sometimes, they’re not aware of that fact themselves.
This is a situation that the folks over in Michigan know all too well, because they’ve devised these talking urinal cakes that tell drunk folks not to drink and drive – as they’re peeing.
Once some pee passes through it, it pipes up to say:
Hey there big guy! Having a few drinks? Then listen up! Think you’ve had one too many? Then it’s time to call a cab or a sober friend for a ride home. It sure is safer and a hell of a lot cheaper than a DWI. Make the smart choice tonight, don’t drink and drive. Remember, your future is in your hand.
Another one goes something like:
Here’s a real friendly reminder. Don’t drive drunk. If you do and you get arrested, the next urinal you pee in will be in jail, with a hairy guy named Bubba standing behind asking you to pick up the soap…
The Michigan State Police have made these available to 200 selected bars all across the state. It sounds funny and quirky, but I think it’s one smart idea to remind drunk drivers to stay off the road. At least, some of them, anyway.
[via NY Daily News via Dvice]
Ever used Gmail's automatic message translation feature, which lets you receive and send emails without even bothering to notice the native language of your contact? If not, that's probably because it's been lurking in the Labs section along with other ideas undergoing live experimentation. As of now though, translation should be right there in front of you as a regular feature, and honestly, it brings a whole new life to foreign spam. Meanwhile, other Lab features have been sacked, such as the Old Snakey time-frittering game and also Mail Goggles, which tested your sobriety with math puzzles before letting you click 'Send' in the wee hours of the morning. Ah well, the best labs are often the least crowded.
Gmail updates: good news for globalists, bad news for drunks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 03:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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