Drunk-driving crashes killed more than 10,000 people in the US in 2013 — about 30 people every day. SO Krishna Reddy came up with a way to change that. Hit the jump to see how.
The 13-year-old from Wichita Falls, Texas, invented a device that can tell when a driver has consumed alcohol or used other drugs based on how dilated his or her pupils are. This will completely revolutionize the breathalyzer industry.
Breathalyzers, which measure the alcohol content in a breath sample, can detect when someone has had a drink, but not if they’ve had other drugs. And they require the driver’s consent to work, as opposed to being automatic.
Our pupils constrict to filter the amount of light that gets into our eyes. When we look into a bright light, our pupils get smaller; when it becomes dark, our pupils dilate, or get bigger. This is known as the pupillary reflex. While certain drugs, like alcohol and opioids, can cause our pupils to constrict, others, like LSD, magic mushrooms, and cocaine, can cause them to dilate.
Taking advantage of this effect, Reddy built a device made of three things: A digital camera, a snakehead flashlight, and a toilet paper roll.
It works like this: The flashlight is held up to the eye, and the toilet roll directs the light onto the pupil. Then, the digital camera takes video of the pupil as it contracts. Using a software program Reddy wrote, the device (and a computer) measures the constriction of the pupil when the light is shone on it.
So far, it can be used to tell if someone has been drinking, smoking marijuana, or if they’ve used certain painkillers, sleep aids, or amphetamines. Because the pupillary reflex happens on the scale of millimeters and milliseconds, the device is far better than the naked eye at detecting a drunk or impaired driver, Reddy explains in a short video about the project.
The hope is that this device could detect when a driver’s reflexes are impaired, and ultimately cut down on lethal traffic crashes. At least, until we all have driverless cars, that is.
