DM Blog

I found an interesting article at CBCnews about a video game, developed at the University of Calgary, that simulates drunk driving and has caught the attention of the US Army.

Here’s a short excerpt of the article:

U.S. army testing Calgary video game that replicates drunk driving

A video game developed at the University of Calgary that simulates driving while drunk has attracted the attention of the U.S. army.

Jim Parker, a computer science professor at the University of Calgary, dreamed up the game Booze Cruise with some of his students. Players can decide how impaired they want to be by typing in their weight and how many drinks they have had. Then they have 90 seconds to manipulate a car around the screen to home base, but their reactions can de delayed and their vision blurred.

"You control the car, navigate down the roads, but there are things on the road and there are police cars, and there are obstacles and pedestrians so you don’t want to hit things," Parker said.

Last summer, Parker was contacted by the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Centre, which said it wanted to try the game out on soldiers who have been in Iraq.

[…]

Parker said the U.S. military is paying for modifications of the game, but he says it was never intended to become a commercial product. Parker wants the game to be available free to schools, as well as groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

At the same time, while looking for an image for this article, I came across a very disturbing poster with the heading: "Not everyone who gets hit by a drunk driver dies". I thought the image was a little over-done until I realized, it’s a real >photo. At the bottom of the poster, it reads: "Jacqueline Saburido was 20 years old when the car she was riding in was hit by a drunk driver. Today, at 23, she is still working to put her life back together." Here’s the poster: