Government-Grade Facial ID for Drunk Drivers?

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- When more than 4,000 judges meet in Washington, D.C., this Sunday, they're going to be testing an all-new breath testing technology that uses government-grade facial recognition software to keep tabs on drunk drivers.

Known as Automated Facial Intelligence™ (AFI™), the first-of-its-kind technology is part of a new system called SCRAM Remote Breath™,  a portable, handheld breath test system that snaps an offender's picture during a test and digitally matches it to a baseline photo. Offenders sentenced to monitoring with SCRAM Remote Breath carry the mobile device 24/7 and complete unsupervised breath tests either on a set schedule, randomly or on-demand as required by the court. The AFI ensures only the offender sentenced to monitoring is actually taking the breath test.

AMS will exhibit and conduct live demonstrations of both SCRAM Remote Breath and the SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring system, which samples a subject's sweat every 30 minutes to measure for alcohol consumption, in the Exhibit Hall at the National Association of Drug Court Professionals conference, July 15 through 17, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.

SCRAM Remote Breath is entering a market known for mobile breath testing systems that require corrections officers to manually review and attempt to match thousands of photos daily to determine if the right person is taking the tests. In comparison, the SCRAM AFI technology digitally maps facial structure and ultimately reduces the demand on staff time and resources by 90 to 95 percent, while also increasing the accuracy of those confirmations.

According to Lou Sugo, vice president of Marketing for Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS), which manufactures and markets the SCRAM Systems™ line of alcohol and location monitoring technologies, the company spent 10 years delivering its flagship 24/7 transdermal product, the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor^® (SCRAM CAM), and has monitored more than 300,000 high-risk, hardcore drunk drivers. "But we know that the judicial system needs options when it comes to monitoring alcohol-involved offenders," says Sugo. "Courts and law enforcement need a high-intensity technology, like our transdermal system, but they also need to be able to reliably monitor a whole host of alcohol-involved offenders—such as first-time drunk drivers and minors in possession—who require supervision, but not the intensity or cost of a 24/7 transdermal technology," he says.

About Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc. (AMS)

Established in 1997, Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc. (AMS) is the world's leading provider of alcohol testing technologies for the criminal justice industry. The company's flagship Continuous Alcohol Monitoring (CAM) technology, launched in 2003, revolutionized the way courts, agencies and treatment providers monitor and manage alcohol-involved offenders. In 2013 the company launched the SCRAM Systems suite of electronic monitoring technologies, which includes SCRAM Remote Breath™, SCRAM One-Piece GPS™ and SCRAM House Arrest™. AMS employs 136 people worldwide and is a privately held company headquartered in Littleton, Colorado.

SOURCE Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc.