The breathalyzer, a device that measures the amount of alcohol in your system by blowing into an orifice, could be a thing of the past.

A group of scientists from Stanford University and the University of Toronto have developed an algorithm, implemented in a smartphone application, that can detect whether you are drunk by asking you to record your voice.

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This technology could measure alcohol consumption more efficiently and at lower costs than with a breath test. So anyone with a smart device can install the app and know how drunk he or she is.

If you drink alcohol excessively, your body will experience symptoms of dehydration, such as dizziness and cardiac arrhythmias. Photo: ZzzVuk

According to the developers, the algorithm occasionally asks you to speak into the microphone to tell you how much alcohol you have consumed. When it detects a dangerous level, it will send you an alert.

How the algorithm works

The scientists recruited 18 participants, including men and women aged 21 to 62, to measure their alcohol consumption with a prototype of the algorithm. Each of them had to say a tongue twister on the app before drinking alcohol in a controlled manner.

It works this way because the voice has different tones depending on the alcohol ingested.

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The same procedure was repeated every hour for seven hours, so it was measured how their tone changed depending on the level of intoxication.

According to him studythe algorithm was able to measure the amount of alcohol in the body with an accuracy of 98%.

However, there are still a number of factors that still need to be developed before this application can be successfully launched in the market.

For example, currently it only works with the English language. The scientists would also like to do the experiment with people of other ethnicities, to see if the algorithm adequately captures the different tolerance for alcohol in each group.

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Another limitation the app would have is that not all drunks are willing to open their cell phone every hour to utter a tongue twister, so it would be useful to include other methods of measurement.

If studies continue, it is possible that these factors will be resolved and that soon everyone will be able to have a portable breathalyzer on their own mobile phone. (JO)