The New Mexico Business Journal has an article here about the booming sales for TruTouch Technologies and their infrared alcohol detector. The device requires a person to place their arms in a cradle and then shoots infrared light into the skin. Somehow, it is supposed to detect the level of alcohol in the person’s bloodstream. The company thinks this technology will replace breath, blood and urine tests in the future, and will replace ignition interlock devices in vehicles. The State of New Mexico has purchased three of these machines and will be using them at roadblocks to see how they do.
I have previously blogged about this type of technology in the past. To my knowledge, neither this device nor the transdermal alcohol detecting devices are being used in Kansas DUI enforcement at this time and it is doubtful that they would be admissible now under the current Kansas DUI laws. However, it is coming. Many predict that eventually driving under the influence will be eliminated by such technology. Because these tests, or the transdermal tests, are “non-invasive” and the results are immediate, I think they will become standard on all vehicles within 10 years.
One note of interest from the article is that machine is referred to as an “intoxication-detecting device.” Of course, if the machine does what it says it can do it is an “alcohol-detecting device”, but is not capable of detecting whether the alcohol in the person’s system has caused intoxication. This is part and parcel of the myth that alcohol effects everyone the same and that reaching the “legal limit” means one is intoxicated. One person can be intoxicated, depending on how you define the term, at a low level while another person is not intoxicated at a high level.