The Samsung LP4100, which has already been purchased by more than 200,000 people in South Korea, is now being marketed to the hard-drinking youth in Great Britain, in an effort to keep them from drunk driving and drunk dialing.
When the user blows into the phone, if their blood-alcohol level is over the legal limit, the telephone displays an animation of an automobile swerving and crashing into traffic cones.
The user can also program the telephone to block selected numbers in the phone's address book to prevent them from calling ex-girlfriends or boyfriends, parents, co-workers or bosses if they are intoxicated.
After successfully marketing the new phone in South Korea, the manufacturer figures to cash in on even larger markets in the UK and the United States. The telephone will be programmed to measure the legal limit of intoxication for the area in which it is being used.
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It's another effort to market cell phones that do more just make phone calls. According to a survey by phone maker Nokia, 75 percent of people use their phone as a alarm clock, 73 percent as a watch, 44 percent as their main camera and about 33 percent to browse the Internet.Now they can use it to prevent potentially dangerous driving under the influence incidents and avoid telling the boss where he can stick their job when their judgment is impaired.
There is no announcement on when the phones will be available in the U.S.
Source: The Sunday Times. Breathalyser Phone Stops Drinkers Making Embarrassing Calls Accessed July 9, 2006.
