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[1] Hong Kong researchers say they are developing what would be the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) app that detects intoxication through real-time Cantonese voice analysis. They say it would help users decide whether they are fit to drive after drinking. A team from the Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) said last month that the self-monitoring tool could help safeguard road safety. It could also monitor language abnormalities linked to medication or fatigue.
[2] The project is funded by a HK$3.4 million grant from the Smart Traffic Fund. Researchers will collect more than 1,000 minutes of Cantonese speech samples from around 100 participants aged 18 to 60 to establish a post-drinking speech database. The database will train a multimodal AI language model that analyses speech rate, intonation stability, speech pauses and deviations in grammatical structure. This will allow comparison of participants’ performance before and after alcohol consumption. It will assess how drinking affects their cognitive and linguistic abilities.
[3] Participants must pass a health assessment by a doctor. A nurse will monitor their alcohol consumption and ensure participants’ alcohol intake remains below Hong Kong’s legal limit for drink-driving. Based on the research findings, the team will develop an application that allows users to assess and monitor alcohol’s effects in real time to determine whether they are fit to drive. The team will also work with researchers from City University of Hong Kong, Southwest University of Political Science and Law and Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Hospital.
[4] According to the team, previous studies on European languages found that alcohol consumption affects how the brain processes language. It can lead to problems in comprehension and expression, such as logical errors, abnormal speech rate, pauses and unstable intonation. However, research on the effects of alcohol on Chinese languages remains scarce.
[5] Peppina Lee Po-lun is the associate dean of the university’s school of education and languages and the team’s principal investigator. She said preliminary findings showed significant differences in participants’ pronunciation, speech rate and word choice after alcohol consumption. “The system being developed is a real-time self-monitoring tool that can serve as a supplementary aid to existing alcohol detection methods, such as breath or laboratory tests, rather than replacing statutory testing procedures,” she said.
[6] According to authorities, one standard drink contains 10g of alcohol and is equivalent to 250ml of beer, 100ml of table wine or 30ml of whisky. Two standard drinks can raise a person’s breath alcohol concentration to near the legal limit. The crash risk for drivers after two standard drinks is twice that of someone who drives sober.
Source: South China Morning Post, May 10
