DrinkSavvy successfully funded their date rape drug detection cups on Indiegogo in December. The idea behind the product is that if a certain drug is added to your drink without your knowledge, the cup will change colors, alerting you that the drink has been altered. DrinkSavvy also plans to create plastic straws with the same material, so the straw would turn from clear to colored in the presence of certain compounds.
As far as the ability for something like DrinkSavvy to prevent date rape, I’m highly skeptical. Like CCTV cameras, this would probably simply push would-be date rapists to targeting women not using such technology and/or using drugs that cannot be detected by the cups. Or would-be date rapists will try to slip the date rape drug in another format, such as food. And, of course, this won’t stop consumption of the most popular date rape drug, alcohol.
There is also the possibility, if this ever did become popular, of the use of compounds that are not date rape drugs to create false positives.
On the other hand, I really like the idea of cups and other items that detect and report back on various environmental variables to the user.
For example, what I’d really like is a cup that I could carry around that would report back to me how much I’ve had to drink out of it that day, week, month, year. Or a fork/spoon set that records how many bites I’ve taken that day, week, month, year to measure food intake in a very general way.
Every time I use an object that does not have such a built-in sensor is a wasted opportunity.