First, we read about the HAPIFORK, which tells you when you’ve had enough to eat, but now they’ve introduced an LED ice cube tells you when you’ve had enough to drink. Yes, technology is there.  This LED ice cube has the ability to gage the alcohol consumption of the person drinking, and changes color to alert them, and their buddies or bartenders, when they’ve had enough.

MIT Media Lab researcher Dhairya Dand created the LED ice cubes after an alcohol-induced blackout put him in the hospital. He ran into some trouble with MIT’s administration following his night of drinking, and had to write a research paper on alcohol consumption during an administrative hearing.  He instead developed the idea to create a masterful tool that could help monitor intoxication, when you simply cannot.

Each ice cube, made from gelatin, holds a coin cell battery, an accelerometer, and an IR transceiver.  The ice cube is able to keep track of the number of sips and total time spent drinking, which enables the device to keep tally of total cocktails consumed, and predict when the user may be intoxicated.

Dand explained to the Huffington Post, “In a sudden flash I had an idea of making some device that would be cool to have in a party as well as keep your alcohol intake in check. As I went back to think about what would be the most fun way to engage the user, I thought of ice cubes.”

The ice cubes are both visual and auditory, flowing and flash in sync with ambient music and sounds. They come in three colors- green, orange, and red. Each color represents the varying stages of intoxication.  To achieve the drunk-determining results seen in Dand’s popular video (above), the drinker must have all three ice cubes present in the beverage.

Dand shows how the LED ice cubes change from green to orange to red by using three separate drinks in the video. However, Dand explains, “If you don’t hurry, it would take say five drinks to hit the red color. If you are having a very mild drink, it might hit red on the sixth or seventh.” Each color level is unique to the situation, depending on the total time spent drinking as well as the strength of each beverage.

But it doesn’t stop there! As an extra precaution, if the drinker continues consuming alcohol beyond the red level, these miraculous LED ice cubes are capable of electrinically transmitting a text message to a friend or loved one through the IR channel, warning them that their buddy may be having one too many.  A specific app allows users to designate their emergency contacts for this purpose.

Dand did not plan on marketing the ice cubes, however with the overwhelmingly popular response he is not considering a Kickstarter campaign. The device only cost Dand about $50 to create.

Soon we may be seeing our local bars and clubs glowing with responsible drinkers, and that’s something to toast to!

To read more about Dand’s revolutionary invention, click here!