The term breathalyser is most commonly associated with a device used by law enforcement to measure someone’s blood alcohol content after they have been pulled over. But with a few tweaks made to the chemicals used in a breathalyser’s sensor, the device can also be used for detecting other problems. Instead of measuring BAC, Breathometer’s new MINT can tell if you’re dehydrated after a workout, or are making your co-worker’s uncomfortable with your halitosis — or bad breath.
Where as most breathalysers require the user to blow into the device for a long period to ensure air is eventually being drawn from the lungs, the MINT is specifically looking to measure the humidity and levels of Volatile Sulphur Compounds (VSCs) in your mouth, so it instead uses a small fan to only draw air in from your mouth — at no point do you have to blow.
Using an accompanying app and a wireless Bluetooth connection to a smartphone, users can then see their measured level of hydration, and the levels of Hydrogen Sulphide, Methyl Mercaptan, and Hydrogen Disulphide in their breath. But if that’s too complicated to understand, an easier-to-read fresh breath rating that uses mint leaves is also available.
Other breathalysers that can supposedly measure bad breath already exist, but those devices are cheap, mostly designed for novelty use, and hardly accurate. Breathometer already has a highly-accurate BAC breathalyser on the market called the Breeze, and the company’s repurposed that same technology for the MINT. And while knowing when it’s time to down a bottle of water or brush your teeth are important, the MINT can even be used to help spot more serious oral issues like gum disease or tooth decay.
So when can you get one? The Breeze breathalyser is already available for sale, but to get your hands on the MINT you’ll have to wait until sometime closer to August when the final production versions are ready for around $US99. But if you simply can’t wait that long and are willing to donate $US200 to the MINT’s newly-launched Indiegogo campaign, you can actually claim one a bit earlier in April, and finally stop worrying if people are secretly just being polite about your bad breath. [Breathometer]