Alcohol Monitor Bracelet Tracks Ability To Give Consent

Well here’s a new technological breakthrough that raises as many questions as it perhaps answers…An alcohol monitoring bracelet that the company is positioning as an aid to whether the wearer is fit to give ‘consent.’

Here’s the deal…

Developed by New Deal Design, the same firm that created the FitBit, The Buzz is a wearable wristband containing a sensor that audits blood-alcohol concentration through the skin. But in addition to being what the company calls a ‘safety device’ (interesting choice of words).

But in addition to informing users just how intoxicated they might be, The Buzz bracelet can be used to indicate to potential partners “whether the wearer is fit to give consent, and alert friends if they could be vulnerable,” according to the Drinks Business.

And here’s how that is supposed to work…

You’re out drinking with a ‘potential’ partner and both of you have to be wearing the Buzz bracelet for things to work (or not).

When those two  ‘potential’ partners hand bump one another(hardly traditional mating behavior)  the bracelets sync-up and exchange  “capacity-state information” (another interesting choice of words), with one another.

If either of the ‘potential’ partners slip into the “red zone” and lose the capacity to consent, their partner will get an alert, (which we can only hope will be used ethically).

Via a synced phone app, users can share additional information, such as their location, with a circle of friends via the phone app. Should a ‘potential’ partner take a turn for the worse, users can also send a ‘panic signal’ to friends in their network.

“We wanted the system to intervene a lot earlier in the story of the night and create a positive tool for partners to start having a discussion about capacity to consent a lot earlier,” Gadi Amit, head of design at New Deal, told Dezeen. “The device allows one person to check whether another is not too drunk and be aware that they be crossing the line of the capacity to consent.”

“We’re not claiming that this is the answer that will save the world from all sexual assault, but it could be a very good tool for preventing some of them.”

Maybe, yes…and maybe no.