Touch-based alcohol sensor will put an end to drunken driving

Date Announced: 01 Jul 2016

GERBRUNN, GERMANY – nanoplus Nanosystems and Technologies GmbH is proud to expand its collaboration with the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) in the United States. In May 2016, ACTS officially authorized nanoplus to start the second phase of developing innovative lasers for a touch-based alcohol sensor in cooperation with TK Holdings Inc. and TruTouch Technologies, Inc. This project is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) program for a Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS).

DADSS focuses on the development of technology that will prevent alcohol–impaired drivers from moving their cars. When ready, the alcohol detection system will be made available as a safety option in new vehicles – like automatic braking, lane departure warning, and other advanced driver assist vehicle technologies.

In 2014, 9,967 people were killed in the United States in car crashes involving drunk drivers. In the past 30 years, 401,404 people have died in drunk-driving crashes. With an accurate and reliable alcohol detection system, such numbers could soon belong to the past.

Two different technologies that measure the driver’s blood alcohol content are being research: a breath-based system, placed in the driver’s side door or in the steering column, which will measure the concentration of alcohol molecules in the driver’s exhaled breath; and a touch-based system that measures alcohol content by shining a beam of infrared light onto a driver’s fingertip when it is placed on the car’s ignition button or on the gear shift.

A video published by the DADSS research program illustrates these technologies. More information may be found at www.dadss.org.

nanoplus is excited to contribute to this life saving project with our know-how as a specialist for semiconductor lasers. Photo: Agreement between ACTS and nanoplus; from left to right Michael Willis (KEA Technologies for ACTS), Lars Hildebrandt (nanoplus), Len Cech (TK Holdings), Abdullatif Zaouk (KEA Technologies for ACTS), Johannes Koeth (nanoplus), Michael Legge (nanoplus), Derek Treese (TruTouch), Christian Forchel (nanoplus)

Contact

E-mail: lars.hildebrandt@nanoplus.com

Web Site: www.nanoplus.com/