MIT Researcher Creates Glowing, Alcohol Tracking Ice Cubes to Help Prevent Drunken Escapades

Usually after a night of blacked out escapades, one simply suffers a hangover and learns not to hit the bar quite so hard.

But if you're MIT Media Labs Researcher Dhairya Dand, you'll learn from the experience and decide to invent something to prevent it from ever happening again. While most would simply learn to count the number of drinks that they've had at every hour, Dand decided to refine it to a science. He invented glowing ice cubes that would change from green, to orange, and to red depending on how much alcohol a drinker's had over time. Red would indicate that the individual was well past the legal limit and would notify a close friend via text.

Molded in gelatin, these glowing "ice cubes" are packed with a LED, an accelerometer, a battery, and IR transceivers, which are programmed to count the number of sips an individual takes from a drink. To keep with the club or party atmosphere, the cubes respond to ambient noise, meaning that they'll flash color to the beat of the music.

While this is an interesting (and nerdy) way to keep track of drinks, it's not particularly practical unless an individual stays secluded to one cup. And this is with the hope that in their drunken state, they don't forget that the cube is there to begin with and try to eat it…

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  • freggo
    A great example that wan CAN be invented does not necessarily NEED to be invented :-)
    Reply
  • ToKiiNz
    what did i just read? this is what they spend money on ice cubes that tract your positions? they already do that with satellites that can see through the walls in our houses why do they need these?
    Reply
  • Oh.

    This could help me.
    Im dronken. Need help to get home.
    Look at me ! I glow in the dark !

    Police or momy know where to drag me.
    Splendid indeed.
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    Or just buy your own breathalyzer (i.e. Backtrack B70 or whatever floats your boat), go out drinking, see how much you can have and what your BAC is after a certain amount of various drinks and test your own tolerance. I have my own breathalyzer and keep my BAC no higher than 0.03 before I drive anywhere. Oh, and eat while you drink and drink 1 water per drink or shot.
    Reply
  • thecolorblue
    this is so stupid
    Reply
  • jalek
    To avoid drunks choking on these things, just embed them in the bottom of the glasses.
    Still not a necessary thing, but they should be able to accomplish the same thing without the choking hazard.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    Or, make the chips safe for consumption and cheap to replace.
    Reply
  • sheepsnowadays
    This is such a waste of time money and resources that it makes me mad. What a useless concept.
    Reply
  • uglynerdman
    its a story about a guy making something for himself and friends, a unique invention. Now people are getting all mad about it like its commercially available or something and complaining like a consumer.

    I think its a nifty idea and cool.
    Reply
  • rantoc
    So if the person takes one glass of coke the sips will still counted as alcohol as it seem to rely on an accelerometer to do the counting - Rather useless but still a kind of geekish cool idea.
    Reply