All is fair in beer and drive! Not any more!!
Technology has become a drunk drivers’ worst nightmare. You may fool around a police officer!! But not the new DETERRENT, a device to detect ALCOHOL!!!
Poland scientists have invented a new laser device to detect alcohol vapors, like exhaled by someone in the car who has been drinking. Scientists say the device can be used just like a speed gun that is being used by the police officers to detect high speeders. The device can detect vapors from a distance of 20 meters. The device has been successfully tested at Military University of Technology in Warsaw. Scientists filled a car’s interior with alcohol vapors to simulate the exhalations of a drinker inside the car.
Working
The main concept used here is the “Stand off detection”. Any device that detects a substance from a distance is said to use stand off detection. Stand off explosives detection, standoff over speed detection, etc are some examples.
The system uses
- a monitoring laser
- a pilot laser
- two detectors
- two reflecting mirrors
- a spherical mirror
- a dichroic mirror and
- a chopper
The laser beam is to be sent across the road constantly. The laser beam will undergo subtle changes when it passes through the vapors. These changes are detected by the detectors that are to be placed on either sides of the road.
One may think, laser beam is hazardous and travelling on a road that is continually exposed to laser beam can affect our health conditions, especially eyes. Absolutely not! Scientists say, microchip lasers with 3.39μm and power of 2 mW are to be used which is 100% safe to human beings and other living organisms.
Dr. Marco Gianinetto, who is a part of the research said, “In the future, a similar technology may be developed to detect different chemical compounds, enabling the detection of drivers under the influence of other intoxicants”.
The device is at an early stage of development and in future, it can also be equipped with cameras and a footage print of the car and its license plate driven by a drunken master can be sent to the police officers, which can be tracked later.
Fooling the system
The device has its own limitations. And so you can also fool it ! But before the device comes to market, it is to be fixed, says one of the scientist.
The deterrent cannot track the cars with solar screens on the side windows. It also cannot detect the vapors in scenarios where the car is driven with windows open and in some others where the passenger is drunk and not the driver.