Being informed in real terms of your blood alcohol level is what a patch developed by Californian researchers offers. A connected tool that could help better manage consumption.
You have a blow in the nose, but you relativize: two or three glasses, the breathalyzer will only see fire. Many people have developed this thinking before getting behind the wheel; many, too, are those who have seen the points of their license fly by this logic. Not to mention, of course, more serious consequences – on the roads, one in three fatal accidents is linked to alcohol in France.
New technology may well bring these zealous consumers back to reality, providing them with reliable and objective information on how much alcohol they have consumed during the evening. A team of researchers from the University of California has just developed a connected patch to be applied to the skin, which measures the blood alcohol level in the body in real time.
Sweat as an indicator
The tests, carried out successfully on a small sample (9 people), are presented in the review ACS Sensors. The patch works in an original way, since it records the alcohol concentrations contained in sweat. Traditionally, we look for these markers in exhaled air, blood or urine.
Sweat is an excellent indicator, however, as sometimes suggested by the strong odor released by soaked people. The patch is a jewel of technology. With a surface area of 1cm2, made from flexible polymer, it is equipped with two electrodes that stimulate the skin to sweat through a molecule transmitted by a weak current. An enzyme reacts in the presence of alcohol; the information is then sent to a printed electronic circuit, which itself communicates it to an object (smartphone, smart watch, etc.).
This is not the first time that researchers have used sweat to measure alcohol, but according to the authors, existing devices “suffer from a long wait time of 30 minutes to two hours” when this patch connected delivers information in real time.
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