Test images (via Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos)
Identifying the intoxicated who become a nuisance should be straight forward for those who frequent clubs and bars. Cheesy one-liners, loud talking (usually accompanied by spit) or a rise in temperament are some pretty good signs a patron has had more than they should have. But that's a grey area of interpretation. In an effort to identify those about to cross the line between friendly and obnoxious a pair of computer scientists, Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos from the University of Patras (Electronics Laboratory) in Greece, have devised a way to adapt thermal imaging technology to target those who don’t know ‘when to say when.'
Their system was designed using a Thermo Vision Micron (A10 infrared model from FLIR) along with two algorithms to measure specific pixel points (20 in all) on a person’s face, which are then measured against a database of sober scans from various individuals. Alcohol, when ingested, dilates the blood vessels in the human body which becomes more prominent in in soft tissues such as the nose and invariably causes increased heat at the surface of the skin. The camera captures the heat produced while the software analyzes the vein displacement in the face to provide an acute assessment of intoxication.
Another identifier their system uses is based off of the same soft tissue/heat approach but uses the second algorithm to identify ‘cold’ areas of the face, such as the forehead (blood tends to gather at thin parts of the skin while intoxicated; therefore the forehead becomes cooler), to provide a second picture of inebriation. Combining the two image patterns could give authorities an instantaneous evaluation of individuals suspected of exceeding the legal limits ( keeping them from entering more bars, liqour stores, etc). However, there are some other indelible signs that don’t require an infrared imaging system to gauge excessive drinking such as showing up to the club with no pants on, but you get the idea.
Cabe
