Heavy drinkers rejoice for here is a smart-band which tracks your alcohol limit
If you are at a party with your friends and wish to know if you could drink more, whipping out a breathalyser might not be the brightest idea to check. But worry not, because Evan Strenk from Milo Sensors is here — a company built around wearable sensors which detect various chemicals in your body based on perspiration from your skin.
Proof is the latest product from the company, a band which is capable of gauging the blood alcohol level content and sends information to your smartphone where you could subtly see if you order that next glass of whiskey on the rocks.
While users can detect their BAC for now, the technology translates into detecting other things like caffeine as well, Strenk said. “The skin ends up being a superhighway of molecules,” with the technology being applicable to a different variety of use cases,” he said. For now, gauging BAC made sense — and, also, the co-founders of the company decided on it over a few pitchers of beer. It could have been an earring, or started off with detecting lactic acid, but after the round they settled on BAC and a band.
The owner slots a cartridge into the band around 6 p.m. before they are planning to go out. The cartridge is disposable, which will cost a few dollars, Strenk said. “The analogy is, you put a raw piece of meat on the counter, over a few hours it turns brown. Similarly you open a cartridge, it oxidizes. It goes beyond step counting, it goes beyond heart rate, and it’s reading bio-analytic through your skin.”
Milo Sensors showed the product at CES this year. The goal is to continuously track a user’s blood alcohol level, instead of waiting for a single moment to ping the phone with an alarm. When doing that, the users can view how fast they are getting drunk and know whether to slow down or not. The band transmits the information to the app, which quickly show how high their BAC (Blood Alcohol Count) is.
The band is slated to come out sometime this year, though Strenk wouldn’t specify, the band will cost somewhere between $100 and $150.
