14/03/2002 New device to help prevent drink-driving has been developed by Bristol University
The tests will be conducted in Bristol by . Dr. Dilwyn Marple-Horvat, a physiologist at Bristol University, who invented the device. He will test his front-seat breathalyser on the public at a shopping centre in the city later this week as part of national science week. Users will drink vodka and try their hand at a rally game. Dr Marple-Horvat said:
"Despite regular government advertising campaigns, people still drink and drive and fall asleep at the wheel. Currently there are no in-car methods of detecting whether a driver is unfit to drive"
Using this device it is possible to detect a change in efficiency after less than one pint of beer, It is designed to judge whether drivers have had too much to drink and wether they should be allowed to drive.
Its creator, Dr Dilwyn Marple-Horvat of Bristol University, UK, says it has the potential to be installed in cars within a year.
Dr Marple-Horvat says that there was a close relationship between drivers' eyes and their hands on the steering wheel.
"We already know that when driving your eyes tend to move to look at the curb just before you start to turn the wheel," he said. "When drunk, your eyes start to move later and later until eventually, when really drunk, they only move as you hit the bend."
Dr Marple-Horvat said
"alcohol affected a region of the brain called the cerebellum, which links parts of the brain that process visual information to parts enabling movement".
His device correlated information from a gadget monitoring steering wheel movement and an in-car eye-tracking system that can tell where eyes are looking through the windscreen.
Dr Marple-Horvat said
"plans for the device were still at an early stage. It could simply warn the driver against driving, or act as a black box system which would record the fact that the driver had been warned but continued to drive. The device could also be linked to the engine to automatically slow the car down, . it could even be used to alert police there was a drink-driver on the road".
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National Science Week National Science Week aims to celebrate science and its importance in our lives by giving people throughout the UK the chance to have a go at science experiments and other science-related activities in their local area.
