Fitbit for Drinking Is Real, Tracks BAC Through Your Skin

If you’re interested in cultivating a six-pack, there are a wealth of wearables available to help monitor your progress.

But if you’re more interested in drinking a six-pack, there’s only one.

Designed to let drinkers monitor their alcohol intake in real-time without having to huff and puff into a breathalyzer, the wrist-worn Skyn from BACtrack continuously tracks its wearer’s TAC (transdermal alcohol content) by analyzing ethanol molecules escaping through the skin.

Using previous data and a proprietary algorithm, the Skyn is then able to generate an estimate about the wearer’s BAC level. By syncing with an app on a smartphone or smartwatch, the gadget can alert users when they are approaching preset BAC levels so they can adjust their drinking accordingly.

The BACtrack — which recently took home the $200,000 top prize at the National Institutes of Health Wearable Biosensor Challenge — has daily, as well as long-term, applications. “It can help doctors accurately measure a patient’s drinking history, and not just depend on the most recent tests,” says Dr. George Koob of the NIH. “This can help a lot with the treatment.”

If you’re interesting in preordering one before it hits the market, here’s the place to do it.

Wear responsibly.