A low-power wearable substance monitoring device

Alcohol and illicit drug abuse has become a major problem in recent years. According to US Census, there are approximately 40 million teenagers between the age of 10-19, and 20% of them have used an illegal substance at least once in their lifetime. Therefore, by extrapolation, there are potentially 8 million drug abuse cases across the board. This opens up a major requirement for drug monitoring and devices capable of monitoring drug abusers or helping addicts recover. Previous research has shown that certain quantifiable physiological parameters become altered following illicit drug or alcohol consumption. A solution that addresses the problem of detecting drug abuse is the core focus of this research. Initial steps have been focused on developing a device in the form of a wrist-watch that is capable of measuring selected physiological parameters using commercially available sensors. An Android application with algorithms capable of determining if the user is under the influence of alcohol or drugs has been developed and tested.