#Your smartphone knows when you’re drunk: study says

Your smartphone can’t cut you off, but it could soon warn you to stop drinking.

In a study published Tuesday in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, researchers found that smartphones can tell when humans are drunk solely based on changes to their gait.

To confirm this, scientists had 22 adults drink a vodka cocktail in 60 minutes, then elastic belted smartphones to their lower backs. Participants were then made to walk a straight line once an hour for seven hours, the smartphones measuring their speed and movements during each 20-step jaunt. Roughly 90% of the time, researchers found they were able to confirm when volunteers were drunk (defined as their breath alcohol concentration exceeding .08 percent) based on the smartphones’ analysis of their brief walk alone.

“We found preliminary evidence supporting use of gait-related features measured by smartphone accelerometer sensors to detect alcohol intoxication,” the study concluded.

This underutilized ability of the smartphone could help people reduce their alcohol consumption, allow sponsors to better monitor alcoholics’ habits and prevent drinking and driving, said Dr. Brian Suffoletto, the study’s lead researcher.

“We have powerful sensors we carry around with us wherever we go,” said the Stanford University professor in a statement. “We need to learn how to use them to best serve public health.”

Suffoletto’s research was inspired by personal loss — in college a close friend of his died in a drunk-driving crash, and in his work as an emergency physician, he has cared for many patients whose injuries were related to acute alcohol intoxication.

“Because of this, I have dedicated the past 10 years to testing digital interventions to prevent deaths and injury related to excessive alcohol consumption,” he said.

The study authors plan to next research if smartphones are as accurate in predicting intoxication when held in drinkers’ hands or placed in their pockets. They have high hopes for the societal good smartphones will be capable of once they are equipped to warn drunk individuals to be careful.

“In five years, I would like to imagine a world in which if people go out with friends and drink at risky levels they get an alert at the first sign of impairment and are sent strategies to help them stop drinking and protect them from high-risk events like driving, interpersonal violence and unprotected sexual encounters,” said Suffoletto.