8A – Solving The Problem

The following is the opportunity that I will be working on this semester:

College students in the US have difficulty assessing their alcohol level and are increasingly appearing in hospitals after binge drinking because they lack the tools and knowledge to drink responsibly. 

Binge drinking is becoming a major problem in the United States especially within colleges. With frat parties, festivals, tailgating, clubs, bars, and other social events that are known to have alcohol, students are at risk of going to hospitals for binge drinking. Whether they binge drink because of peer pressure, wanting to relive stress, or wanting to 'get loose', people are putting themselves and possibly others in danger. The lack of knowledge and tools aid in the alarming rates of hospital visits related to severe intoxication.  

The solution that I came up for this problem is to create an ‘arcade game’ where people will insert money into an arcade machine and then will be required to place their thumbs on a keypad. This keypad will be a touch-based system that uses special technology to detect the level of alcohol in your blood. Some companies are already designing technology of this sort to place in cars, more information here.

After a few seconds, the machine screen will tell you what your blood alcohol level is and depending on the quantity, it will give you certain statements. The machine will be programed to classify your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) into 3 categories: green, yellow, or red. I determined the BAC categories by using Stanford’s Alcohol and Drug Infographic. The following are the meanings and the screen statements for each color.

-   Green: This means that your BAC is between 0.0 and 0. 06 and you are slightly buzzed. If the results come to this color, your result will pop on the screen along with some positive reinforcement and tips on how to keep/reduce your BAC. Next, the Space Invaders game will appear on the screen and you can continue to play as normal.

-   Yellow: This means that your BAC is between 0.07 and 0. 14 and you are drunk. Your result will pop on in the screen along with highly suggested tips to lower your BAC to get to Green and stay safe. Next, the Pac-Man game will appear on the screen and you can continue to play as normal.

-   Red: This means that your BAC is between 0.15 and 0. 24 and you are in danger of going to the hospital. A person is considered to be in need of medical help once their BAC is 0.25 or higher. Your result will pop on in the screen along with huge long red warning signs about the risks of being this intoxicated and safe procedures to take. Next, no game will pop on the screen. As a result of being on red, people lose their chance of playing any game.

After conducting my interviews and doing some personal reflecting, I have pinpointed certain people/businesses that would be interested in buying my product/service. Since this product will be more catered to college students, it can be marketing to be sold to fraternities/sororities, clubs/bars, and even universities so that they can be placed on campus. My customers will be organizations that want students to remain safe and/or need their party attendees to remain safe in order to not get in trouble. I believe that this is a fun and creative way to get students to evaluate their BAC. This is a system that will allow other students to realize how intoxicated their friends are and hopefully they will help their intoxicated friend make correct decisions.