Created by the MIT Media Lab, the device pulses to the music and changes color according to the number of drinks you’ve had.
Dhairya Dand, a research assistant in the Information Ecology group at the MIT Media Lab, has created some smart LED ice cubes. The alcohol-aware glowing cubes react to music and also change color according to the number of drinks you’ve had in order to warn you about having too many.
Dand had the idea for the ice cubes after an alcohol-induced blackout. The Creators Project notes that a circuit inside the cube tracks the time and the number of sips to determine how drunk you are.
If you’re drinking too fast or too much, the cubes respond by changing color from green to orange and finally to red. If you keep drinking beyond the safety limit they can send a text to your close friend using your smartphone to tell them you’ve had too much to drink and need to go home.
The waterproof, edible cubes, which beat and pulse in response to ambient music, are moulded using jelly. The LED, accelerometer, IR transceivers, and battery, are moulded into a cube and left to settle before they’re ready to use. You can check out the video below to see the cubes in action: