Water-Cluster-Detecting Breath Sensor and Applications in Cars for Detecting Drunk or Drowsy Driving
Developing safety measures to prevent drunk and drowsy driving is a major technical challenge for the car industry. I have developed a system for this that involves the water-cluster-detecting (WDC) breath sensor. The WCD breath sensor detects breath by measuring electric currents of positively or negatively charged water clusters in breath that are separated by using an electric field. The WCD breath-alcohol sensor couples the WCD breath sensor with an alcohol sensor and simultaneously detects the electrical signals of both breath and alcohol in the breath. This ensures that the sample is from a person's breath, not an artificial source. Furthermore, the WCD breath sensor can detect breath from about 50 cm and can also test the level of alertness of a subject sitting in the driver's seat of a car. This is done by measuring the point of time at which the breathing changes from conscious, such as in pursed-lip breathing, to unconscious, such as when the driver becomes drowsy. This is the first result that one device has been used to detect both drunk and drowsy driving.