Smartphones Can Tell If You¡¯re High On Marijuana With 90% Accuracy Very Soon

Sensors on an individual¡¯s smartphone can now tell if that person is high, with unprecedented precision.

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Also Read: People Who Smoke Marijuana Often Have 20 Percent More Sex, Claims A 13-Year-Long Research

This is based on a new study conducted by researchers at Rutgers University¡¯s Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.

Getting intoxicated with marijuana has been linked to slower response times in focus-intensive tasks like driving, and can result in a dangerous situation not just for the individual but others on the road.

Researchers have come up with an algorithm that fuses sensors from the smartphone along with GPS data, as well as information of the time of day and day of the week to offer a prediction of an individual¡¯s toxicity with 90 percent accuracy.

They collected daily data from volunteers in Pittsburgh from the age of 18 to 25 years who claimed to smoke marijuana at least twice a week.

With the help of self-initiated reports and phone surveys over a 30-day-period, researchers developed an algorithm that would detect the intoxication in an individual with 60 percent accuracy, just based on the time of the day and the day of the week.

With the addition of continuous data taken from smartphones, sensors increased this rate to 90 percent. What was crucial for the high accuracy was the travel patterns from GPS when an individual was intoxicated, as well as movement data from the device¡¯s accelerometer.

Also Read: 'Marijuana Halts Brain Damage¡¯

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Experts concluded in the study, ¡°This proof-of-concept study indicates the feasibility of using phone sensors to detect subjective cannabis intoxication in the natural environment, with potential implications for triggering just-in-time interventions.¡±

If the application of this algorithm is perfected in future, it could be a huge boon for law enforcement for accurate detection of intoxication as most tests today are time-consuming and often aren¡¯t accurate since the consumption of marijuana could still show traces of it in blood and urine even after three to four days of consumption.

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