Mobile Smarttracking – Finding Objective Parameters for Determining Fitness to Drive

Abstract

The misuse of alcohol and drugs has a big influence on traffic safety. For assessing whether a driver is impaired by alcohol or drugs, police conduct roadside tests, e.g. by breathalyzer or similar devices and also use other test batteries such as standardized field sobriety tests (SFT) that evaluate various psychophysical parameters. However, the way these tests are usually conducted often leads to subjective and investigator dependent results. For more objective results that allow to quantify the influence of illicit substances or alcohol using non-invasive test methods, specialized (laboratory) equipment has to be used. In order to allow for a more objective way of testing with devices already available in roadside situations, in our preliminary study, we chose horizontal gaze nystagmus (part of SFT) and implemented it for Android based devices.