Breath alcohol detector with improved compensation for environmental variables
AssigneeLife Loc, Inc.
InventorsBenjamin L. Lopez, Steven A. Beard, Kirby Phillips
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Abstract
A breath alcohol detector measures and compensates for distance between the mouth of the individual exhaling breath into the ambient air and the detector, the atmospheric pressure, and the temperature. Blood alcohol content information is calculated using these compensation factors and a signal obtained from an electrochemical fuel cell which is indicative of the amount of alcohol or other gas contained in the sample. The detector also includes a reciprocally acting electromagnetically energized motor which drives a diaphragm pump to draw the sample into the electrochemical fuel cell.
Claims16
A breath alcohol detector for use in obtaining blood alcohol content information of an individual from a sample of breath exhaled by the individual into ambient air, comprising:
- means for collecting a sample of exhaled breath which has been diffused into the ambient air at a location spaced apart from the mouth of an individual;
- means for deriving an alcohol content signal related to the quantity of alcohol present in the collected sample;
- means for deriving a distance signal related to the distance at which the sample was collected from the mouth of the individual;
- and
- means for calculating a value representative of the blood alcohol content of the individual utilizing the alcohol content signal and the distance signal in the calculation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.