14 DAY TRIAL // A new paper in the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing describes a laser device that can pick up traces of alcohol vapors in moving cars and that researchers say has high chances to prove a valuable tool when it comes to detecting drunken drivers.
The device is the brainchild of researchers with the Military University of Technology in Warsaw, Poland, and has recently been pieced together based on data collected while researching stand-off detection.
As detailed in the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, stand-off detection refers to pinning down chemical and biological compounds from afar with the help of lasers. It is on this technology that the device relies on to identify drunken drivers.
The Military University of Technology scientists claim to have already tested the device in conditions similar to real-life ones, and to have obtained very promising results, EurekAlert informs.
Thus, they say that, after placing the device in front of an open window and having a car drive in its proximity, the gadget successfully picked up on alcohol vapor concentrations as low as 0.1%, the same source details.
These alcohol vapors whose presence inside the moving car the device managed to detect had a temperature similar to that of alcohol vapors that a driver would let out. Hence, it is argued that the device could help identify people driving under the influence.
“Now these researchers have demonstrated how a laser device could be effectively used for detecting drunken drivers and thereby helping to reduce the number of accidents caused by drivers under the influence of alcohol,” says specialist Marco Gianinetto.
Furthermore, “In the future, a similar technology may be developed to detect different chemical compounds, enabling the detection of drivers under the influence of other intoxicants.”
The only downside to using this device to identify cars tainted with alcohol vapors is that the police might end up stopping cars whose drivers are perfectly sober, but that carry inebriated passengers. Still, the device is likely to make police officers' work a whole lot easier.
“[The device] will surely decrease the number of cars that have to be checked by police and, at the same time, will increase efficacy of stopping drunken drivers,” the brainiacs behind this project explain in their paper.
The Military University of Technology scientists say that they wish to further investigate the uses of such a device and explain that they now wish to focus on how driving with the air-conditioning or the fans on might affect the gadget's efficiency.