Drunk driving is no laughing matter, but you know what is? iPhone apps that claim they they can tell you if you're too drunk to drive. Here's a much simpler test: if you're even considering using your phone to calculate your BAC, you're too drunk to drive. Not convinced? Fine, read about how it "works."
BreathalEyes analyzes your horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN), which is the involuntary eye movement that sometimes occurs when you're plastered—you know, when you can't see how unattractive that tall brunette really is because your eyeballs keep bouncing around. The app uses your iPhone's camera to record HGN and supposedly gives a BAC result that's within .02 percent accuracy.
As PSFK points out, one of the biggest problems with BreathalEyes, apart from everything (developers even point out that BreathalEyes "is for entertainment purposes only"), is that you'll need two people to use it, one of whom must be sober enough to hold the phone steady for 10 seconds. Despite all of these glaring shortcomings, the Bronx DA office was seen feverishly downloading the app for all their booze-happy ADAs—you know, just for fun.
