Being under the influence of alcohol or anything else does not appear to be much of a problem for dilli wallas for now, however with the ever so evolving technology, if in the near future you are found to be under the influence of alcohol, be sure to be spotted from a fair distance and that too without even having to blow some air on the officers face.
Geeks from Greece have devised a new technology that can spot drunken people in a crowd by monitoring the temperature of their body and face through cameras. A code has been devised to look for signs of inebriation in a system to be used in bars and shops to alert the staff.
This is how it works:
- It looks for changes in the body temperature to determine sobriety
- It works with two computer formulas, in conjunction with the camera
- It can spot physical differences such as the dilation of blood vessels in a drunk persons cheek, or the slight increase in heat on nose, compared to their forehead
So far this concept is being used in airports to help spot people with infections, such as SARS, but the new twist on the technology could be used at sports events or crowded areas such as shopping malls or recreation parks and it would be adopted as an aid to security teams or police.
The credit of producing two unique algorithms to analyze data from cameras goes to Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos, from the University of Patras in Greece. The first algorithm notes how alcohol causes blood vessel dilation at the skin’s surface, so by comparing different spots on the face, they can spot individual pixel-width differences.
Alternately the second algorithm looks at heat variability across areas of the face, based on observations that the nose becomes relatively hot compared to a cooler forehead when a person is intoxicated.
Researchers suggest the system could be used to stop the police or officials making mistakes based on ill-founded assumptions created by seasoned drunkards based on their appearance or behavior.
The technology, however, is likely to raise concerns over privacy, particularly if deployed en masse on the general public.
This is just a word of caution for fellow dilli walls, the message is pretty clear “Be aware, be cautious, be clean and have a good one…..CHEERS.”
Leave a Reply