BreathalEyes App Lands In The iOS App Store, Means Your iPhone Can Now “Approximate” Your BAC [BreathalEyes Blood Alcohol Scanner App Now Available For iOS, Comes Priced At $0.99 & Detects The Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN)]

Posted on TFTS by Robert Nelson on Thursday, 29. December 2011 under: Computers & Computing, Mobile/Cell Phones, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

With what seems to have come with deliberate timing, a new breathalyzer app has arrived in the iOS app store. The app is called BreathalEyes and while it does offer a look at the persons BAC level, this is not actually a breathalyzer.

Lets explain, the BreathalEyes does not actually require one to ‘blow’ as typically expected. Instead the app measures the persons Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) by scanning their eye. More specifically, the app is said to scan the eye to detect and analyze Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) which will then offer an “approximate” blood alcohol content (BAC) level.

That being said, the BreathalEyes app is currently available in the iOS App Store, it will run on the iPhone 4 or later (requires iOS 4.3 or later) and is priced at $0.99. Otherwise, some important tidbits include that this app is designed “for entertainment purposes only” and that it has an effective range of 0.02% – 0.17% (+/- .02%) BAC. In addition, some of the other points include the following;

BreathalEyes scans the eye to detect and analyze Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN).
Technology based on 40 years of public and private testing.
Only works on intoxicated individuals.
With a breathalyzer, the subject has to wait 20 mins, after drinking to “BLOW”.
BreathalEyes can be used to “SCAN” a subject immediately.
No network connection required.
No advertisements.
Flash function for low lighting conditions.
No data is recorded or retrieved from your phone by BreathalEyes.

With that, we have the rant — while this a certainly a good tool to have — we would argue that if you are impaired enough to need to test yourself — then you should probably not be driving. After all, it is better to be safe than sorry. Or in jail. And on the flip side, we could see a nice use case for that stubborn friend who always thinks he/she is “fine.”