Breath-analyser car to save cops the trouble

CHENNAI: To prevent the menace of drunken driving, four students of Dr MGR University at suburban Maduravoyal have developed a new device, 'Alcohol Tracer-cum-Engine Control'.

The students of final year electronics and instrumentation engineering, D Sesha Arun Kumar (Chennai), G Sujayan (Nagercoil), R Abhishek (Delhi) and MN Sujeeth Kumar (Chennai), demonstrated the innovation in the presence of varsity Chancellor AC Shanmugam.

Explaining the device to newspersons here, Shanmugam said it was a battery-operated microcontroller-based alcohol sensor attached to the steering wheel. When a drunken driver attempted to start the vehicle, the device would sense the alcohol from his breath and would not allow the car to start. Instead, the monitor attached to the device would indicate the quantity of alcohol consumed by the driver.

Sujayan's bitter experience of seeing his friend's father getting seriously injured owing to drunken driving provided the spark for the boys to come up with this novel device. The students had worked on the project for the last one year.

As a token of appreciation, the Chancellor decided to reward the students with a purse of Rs25,000 each.

Shanmugham said that to promote entrepreneurs, the University had decided to get in touch with all agencies and departments concerned to set up an ancillary industry to further production of prototypes and patent this research project.

He offered the varsity's help to all those students interested in setting up an industry of their own.