An apparatus for controlling alcohol interlock includes a sensor that senses an environment of a driver's seat and a camera that obtains a face image of a passenger and an image of exhalation of the passenger. A controller activates a start lock mode of a vehicle and determines whether a condition for detecting components of the exhalation of the passenger is satisfied based on the environment of the driver's seat. The controller determines whether the exhalation of the passenger is exhalation of a driver based on the face image of the passenger and the image of the exhalation of the passenger, and determines whether to detect alcohol concentration in the exhalation of the passenger based on the determination result.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring breath alcohol concentration of a user. A flow of an expired breath sample is passed through a fuel cell sensor giving an output signal proportional to the amount of alcohol present in the breath sample. By measuring the flow rate, the volume of the breath sample may be calculated, whereas the breath alcohol concentration is calculated based on the fuel cell output signal. Both the sample volume and the breath alcohol concentration values are continually updated by integrating the measured instantaneous flow rate and the fuel cell output signal over time. If the user stops blowing, flow compensation is performed to obtain a compensated fuel cell output signal using a stored calibration volume. Hence, an improved method for accurately measuring the breath alcohol concentration of a test person is achieved, capable of handling varied expired volumes of breath, which obviates the need for a sampling mechanism.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring breath alcohol concentration of a user. A flow of an expired breath sample is passed through a fuel cell sensor giving an output signal proportional to the amount of alcohol present in the breath sample. By measuring the flow rate, the volume of the breath sample may be calculated, whereas the breath alcohol concentration is calculated based on the fuel cell output signal. Both the sample volume and the breath alcohol concentration values are continually updated by integrating the measured instantaneous flow rate and the fuel cell output signal over time. If the user stops blowing, flow compensation is performed to obtain a compensated fuel cell output signal using a stored calibration volume. Hence, an improved method for accurately measuring the breath alcohol concentration of a test person is achieved, capable of handling varied expired volumes of breath, which obviates the need for a sampling mechanism.

Disclosed is a sensor device (100) for the parallel determination of a concentration of small molecule substances (e.g. ethanol, glucose, etc.) and of a pH value in a solution during the course of a biotechnological process using what is known as cyclic voltammetry. Said sensor device is constructed in the form of a rod electrode. The sensor device consists at least of two rod-shaped working electrodes (102, 103), for which different conductive materials are selected in such a way that distinguishable voltage/current profiles can be determined for the small molecule substances to be determined, and of a rod-shaped reference electrode (104). The working electrodes and the reference electrode are each embedded or melted in a tubular, insulating material. Furthermore, the sensor device comprises a counter electrode (105) in the form of a hollow cylinder, within which the working electrodes and the reference electrode are mounted. In addition, the sensor device has a sensor head part (101), which comprises at least one electronic component (107) for providing desired voltage profiles for cyclic voltammetry and for signal amplification, an analysis unit (108) for control and evaluation, and an interface (109) for data transmission.

Apparatus, methods, and systems for detecting alcohol concentrations of an individual, and in particular in vivo alcohol concentrations of an individual. Alcohol sensing compositions include at least one alcohol-responsive active area comprising a concerted enzyme system having at least a first enzyme and second enzyme capable of acting in concert to facilitate the detection of alcohol. At least one of the enzymes in the concerted enzyme system is a ketoreductase.

Apparatus, methods, and systems for detecting alcohol concentrations of an individual, and in particular in vivo alcohol concentrations of an individual. Alcohol sensing compositions include at least one alcohol-responsive active area comprising a concerted enzyme system having at least a first enzyme and second enzyme capable of acting in concert to facilitate the detection of alcohol. At least one of the enzymes in the concerted enzyme system is a ketoreductase.

Exhaled breath analysis in health and disease is an area of growing clinical interest with the potential to be adopted through the whole respiratory healthcare continuum. However, currently there is no standard for exhaled breath collection, and the optimal way to preconcentrate the highly humid exhaled breath is not known. Described is an optimized combination of sorbent materials and sample handling methods that allows quantitative capturing of exhaled molecules over a broad range in highly humid conditions. The invention can be applied in pre-concentration units of future devices for exhaled breath analysis, for example at the bedside.

Exhaled breath analysis in health and disease is an area of growing clinical interest with the potential to be adopted through the whole respiratory healthcare continuum. However, currently there is no standard for exhaled breath collection, and the optimal way to preconcentrate the highly humid exhaled breath is not known. Described is an optimized combination of sorbent materials and sample handling methods that allows quantitative capturing of exhaled molecules over a broad range in highly humid conditions. The invention can be applied in pre-concentration units of future devices for exhaled breath analysis, for example at the bedside.

Embodiments of a method and/or system, such as for characterizing at least one microorganism-related condition, can include: determining a set of associations (e.g., positive associations such as positive correlations, negative associations such as negative correlations, non-associations such as no correlation or minimal correlation, etc.) between a set of microorganism taxa and at least one microorganism-related condition; determining a set of reference features (e.g., reference abundance ranges, etc.) for the set of microorganism taxa; and determining one or more significance index metrics based on the set of associations and the set of reference features.

Multiple enzymes may be present in one or more active areas of an electrochemical analyte sensor for detecting one or more different analytes. In particular, an analyte sensor may comprise a sensor tail configured for insertion into a tissue and one or more working electrodes having a glucose-responsive active area and an ethanol-responsive active area to detect glucose and ethanol in vivo.