A 23-year-old MIT student understands the consequences of consuming too much alcohol in a short period of time, so he recently created glowing ice cubes that not only glow and flash according to the beat of ambient music, but proclaim to actually calculate just how much alcohol an individual is drinking.
These innovative ice cubes use color to depict an individual’s alcohol intake. The LED found inside each cube turns green for the first drink, turns yellow as a warning that the individual’s alcohol level may be getting high, and eventually changes to red to signal to the individual that it’s time to put the drink down and take things slow.
It not only counts the number of sips that a person takes, but also keeps track of the time. According to reports, this circuit allows the ice cube to make a reliable estimate of the individual’s level of intoxication.
The ice cube’s circuit is molded in gelatin and consists of an LED, a battery, an accelerometer, and infrared transceivers. If a person drinks too much, then the high-tech ice cube can communicate to the person’s phone via infrared and send a text message to close friends asking for help.
The student states that his latest invention is open-source, available for anyone who wishes to develop, hack, or play around with it.
Reliability Issues
It should be noted that these ice cubes (as well as the blood alcohol measuring iPhone apps we blogged about earlier) are not perfect and really intended for just “entertainment” purposes only… you should never rely on these as a good gauge of whether you are fit to drive after drinking.
Regardless of how you measure your intoxication level, it is better to not get behind wheel after consuming alcohol. But, if you do get charged with DWI in the Twin Cities metro area then call Kans Law at (952) 835-6314 for a free consultation and case evaluation.
Tags: BAC, Measuring Alcohol Consumption
