A Preliminary Study Using Smartphone Accelerometers to Sense Gait Impairments Due to Alcohol Intoxication

Sensing the effects of alcohol consumption in real time could offer numerous opportunities to reduce related harms. This study sought to explore accuracy of gait-related features measured by smartphone accelerometer sensors on detecting alcohol intoxication (breath alcohol concentration [BrAC] > .08%).

In a controlled laboratory study, participants (N = 17; 12 male) were asked to walk 10 steps in a straight line, turn, and walk 10 steps back before drinking and each hour, for up to 7 hours after drinking a weight-based dose of alcohol to reach a BrAC of .20%. Smartphones were placed on the lumbar region and 3-axis accelerometer data was recorded at a rate of 100 Hz. Accelerometer data were segmented into task segments (i.e., walk forward, walk backward). Features were generated for each overlapping 1-second windows, and the data set was split into training and testing data sets. Logistic regression models were used to estimate accuracy for classifying BrAC ≤ .08% from BrAC > .08% for each subject.

Across participants, BrAC > .08% was predicted with a mean accuracy of 92.5% using logistic regression, an improvement from a naive model accuracy of 88.2% (mean sensitivity = .89; specificity = .92; positive predictive value = .77; and negative predictive value = .97). The two most informative accelerometer features were mean signal amplitude and variance of the signal in the x-axis (i.e., gait sway).

We found preliminary evidence supporting use of gait-related features measured by smartphone accelerometer sensors to detect alcohol intoxication. Future research should determine whether these findings replicate in situ.