A method of monitoring for circumvention of an ignition interlock system is described herein including detecting an electrical parameter associated with an electrical power state of a vehicle electrical system in a vehicle comprising an ignition interlock device that includes at least a relay device and a controller device electrically interconnected within the vehicle electrical system, measuring a rate of degradation associated with the electrical parameter of the vehicle electrical system, and comparing the electrical parameter to a threshold condition. The method further includes comparing the rate of degradation of the electrical parameter to a threshold rate. Depending on the rate of degradation, a violation state may be generated, a violation state may be reversed, a violation state may be maintained, a log entry may be generated, or more than one of these may occur.

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.

A vehicle immobilization system includes a detection element operable to detect a level of an intoxicant in a user's breath. A control module is operable to receive a signal from the detection element indicating the level of intoxicant in the user's breath, and to selectively restrict operation of a vehicle based on the level of intoxicant in the user's breath exceeding a threshold. A wireless relay is operable to replace a standard relay in the vehicle, and to wirelessly communicate with the control module such that the control module is operable to control the wireless relay to selectively restrict operation of the vehicle.

In devices that determine levels of substance use, a substance level in a test sample provided to the testing device by a test subject is determined. A sequence of images are captured to include a portion of the face of the test subject providing the test sample and a display of the testing device. A value indicative of the substance level detected within the test sample is determined. A validity indicator indicating validity of the value indicative of the substance level is determined. A current location is determined. The value indicative of the substance level, the validity indicator, and the current location are sent to a remote server.

A sobriety ignition interlock system including an engine control device and a method for managing available vehicle engine power using the sobriety ignition interlock system. The engine control device includes an engine control processor (ECP) that is electronically connected in between an engine control unit (ECU), an engine sensor assembly, and a sobriety processor. The sobriety processor determines a sobriety level of a vehicle driver and sends a corresponding sobriety signal to the ECP. The ECP intercepts an engine signal transmitted from the engine sensor assembly to the ECU and manipulates the engine signal according to the sobriety signal, in order to manage the available power of the vehicle engine.

The present invention provides a system for vehicle security, personalization, cardiac activity and respiratory monitoring of a driver wherein active electrocardiography of a driver is mapped and in case of drivers' abnormal heart numbers or passing out under the influence of alcohol, the monitor takes the control of the vehicle and stops it precisely. The monitor further makes the automatic emergency call to pre-input contact and also provide the security to vehicle to restrict unauthorized access.

A method for enabling driver operation of a motor vehicle includes receiving an electrical signal representing a property sensed by touching a region of skin of an occupant in the motor vehicle, and determining whether the occupant's ability to drive the motor vehicle is impaired based on the electrical signal. The method further includes performing an image based verification to determine whether the occupant from whom the property was sensed is in a driving position of the motor vehicle, and providing a control signal to enable operation of the motor vehicle based on a result of the determining and a result of the image based verification.

Embodiments include breath intoxicant monitoring systems and methods of operating a breath intoxicant monitoring system. In an embodiment, a breath intoxicant monitoring system, includes a first detection element, a second detection element, and a control module. The first detection element can be operable to detect a level of an intoxicant in a user's breath and to provide a continuous signal indicating the level of intoxicant. The second detection element can be operable to detect a level of the intoxicant. The second detection element includes a different type of element than the first detection element. The second detection element can have greater accuracy than the first detection element. The control module to selectively operate the second detection element based on the signal received from the first detection element, and to indicate whether the level of intoxicant in the user's breath exceeds a threshold. Other embodiments are also included herein.

A system and method of monitoring sobriety using a hand-held breath testing device that, on receipt of a user's breath, generates a breath test signal comprising substance content data and user identification data, and wirelessly transmits the breath test signal to a breath test signal receiving station. The breath test signal includes substance content data and user identification data. The substance content data includes at least one of: a blood alcohol level and a narcotics presence. The user identification data includes compressed image data. The signal receiving station is monitored by a supervisor who is able to intervene should the substance level be greater than a predetermined threshold, or should the user identification data no match with a reference user identification data.

A blood alcohol level sensing system for a vehicle is steering wheel with infrared sensors that are able to detect variations in body chemistry from contact with the palms of the hands to determine if a driver is either alcohol impaired or impaired from certain medical conditions that might affect driving. The system has a digital readout that may be located on the dashboard of the vehicle, and the readout may also be transmitted to a cell phone. In the event of an exceedance of a predetermined set point, an interlock will interrupt the start circuit of the vehicle to prevent it from starting.