SoberMotion:
Leveraging the Force of Probation Officers to Reduce the Risk of DUI Recidivism
Chuang-Wen You, Ya-Fang Lin, Yaliang Chuang, Ya-Han Lee, Pei-Yi Hsu, Shih-Yao Lin, Chih-Chun Chang, Yi-Ju Chung, Yi-Ling Chen, Ming-Chyi Huang, Ping-Hsuan Shen, Hsin-Tung Tseng, Hao-Chuan Wang
Overview
Background
Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol is one of the major causes of traffic accidents in Taiwan. For misdemeanor DUI offenders, prosecutors commonly defer prosecution in favor of probation. While offenders on probation periodically visit probation officers to evaluate the risk of DUI recidivism, many individuals re-commit DUIs while on probation.
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Problem
The DUI recidivism is due largely to the inability of probation officers to track DUI offenders' drunk driving behaviors in daily lives. Furthermore, offenders lack a mechanism by which to determine whether their breath alcohol level is below the allowable breath alcohol limit (0.15 mg/L in Taiwan) before getting behind the wheel.
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Goal
This study aims at assisting probation officers and DUI offenders in the prevention of DUI recidivism. We derived two mains goals from pilot interviews and literature reviews:
1. Provide a practical way for probation officers to intervene while needed.
2. Allow offenders to be aware of their drinking and driving behaviors.
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System
The SoberMotion system supports DUI offenders to avoid re-committing DUI during their probation period through leveraging law power to nudge them to be more aware of whether they are still under the influence before operating a vehicle.
Inspired by pilot interviews with DUI offenders and their probation officers and psychiatrists, the proposed system records alcohol use and driving behaviors and identifies situations that offenders should evaluate their sobriety. With the ability to detect drinking and driving behaviors, the phone app provides firm persuasion by not only revealing the possible drunk driving moments to probation officers but also introducing a reward mechanism to motivate users.
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Evaluation
From a 2-month field study, we demonstrated the feasibility of the system that offers were more aware of their alcohol metabolism and we also revealed design considerations for extending probation force into offenders' daily lives to reduce DUI recidivism.
My Role
I worked with 2 other researchers on research exploration, user studies, system design, and evaluation. I participated in all the design processes, except for the visual design of the app. I mainly took charge of :
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System design: App function and information architecture design, the UX design of management server, and breathalyzer shape design.
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System implementation: Data collection of driving and alcohol sensing.
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Study: Study design and conduction.
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Study analysis: Qualitative data analysis.
Design Process
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Conducted interviews and developed persona with DUI offenders, probation officers, and case managers to understand DUI offenders and contexts.
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Identified actionable design goals through an affinity diagram derived from interview results and persona development.
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Brainstormed possible solutions and found the most efficient and viable ones.
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Converted system design goals into wireframes and modified the system design iteratively through the cognitive walkthrough method.
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Prototyped breathalyzer UI for usability testing through 3D printing and developed a machine learning training scheme for alcohol detection to facilitate the training process.
SoberMotion
The SoberMotion system comprises (1) a phone app, (2) a breathalyzer device, and (3) a management server.
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The phone app
1. Alcohol test
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To monitor their alcohol use, users are required to perform at least one alcohol test in 2 of the time slots per day. To increase awareness, users are asked to assess their alcohol metabolism status before testing. The testing records can be navigated at the Record tab.
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2. Probation achievement
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To save both probation officers' and users' time, we introduce a reward mechanism that users will be exempted from one probation visit if they earn enough probation scores. Users can earn probation scores through alcohol screening.
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3. High-risk vehicle use alert
To make users be aware of their driving and drinking behaviors, an alert will be shown to ask users to have an alcohol test if they operate a vehicle when the last alcohol test shows not sober or without an alcohol test 24 hrs prior to the driving.
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The breathalyzer
1. A pre-assigned unique identifier (ID)
To ensure that devices are used only by their owners, a randomly generated binary square fiducial marker encodes a unique identification number assigned to each user. The marker is positioned at the back of the breathalyzer for the phone app to verify while users performing an alcohol test.
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The management server
1. An early-warning service
To support probation officers to intervene timely, this service proactively alerts probation officers to issues requiring an immediate attention, such as poor conformance of alcohol testing, excessive alcohol use, and frequently unreported high-risk vehicle use events.
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Results
We designed and conducted a 2-month field study with 8 DUI offenders, a probation officer, and a psychiatrist to evaluate the SoberMotion system.
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Key Result 1
Prevent DUI offenders from re-committing DUIs by alcohol testing before driving.
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This figure indicates whether users' assessments of alcohol metabolism are consistent with the test results.
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1. Testing before driving rises awareness of alcohol metabolism
Under-assessing is when users thought they could pass the test, but they did not. It consists of around 40% in both months, which shows the degree to which SoberMotion improved user awareness of alcohol metabolization.
It also reconfirms users' difficulty and needs to conduct alcohol testing before driving. The qualitative findings also support it:
“One day I ate a mutton hot pot with my friends. I showed the breathalyzer to my friends. I also demonstrated how it worked and was surprised to find that I failed the test. One of my friends reminded me that the cook may have added alcohol to the dish we were eating.” — (U2)
2. Users became conservative after failed the test.
Over-assessing is when users assessed that they could not pass the test, but they passed it. A review of the data revealed that in month 2, many of the participants began conducting a series of tests before operating a vehicle. After the first test showed the didn't pass, they changed their assessments and though they were still drunk even when the last test which confirmed they were legal to drive.
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Key Result 2
Apply the force of law to prevent DUI offenders from re-committing DUIs
1. Reinforcing the importance of testing before driving
Confirming that alcohol is completely metabolized before operating vehicles is the best way to prevent DUIs. The proposed system alerts probation officers when a user is involved in a high-risk vehicle use event. A failure to follow through with self-reporting gives probation officers a bad impression; therefore, all of the participants were very good about self-reporting.
“Well, you know ... if you are convicted of a DUI, you have to follow what he [the probation officer] tells you. The court deferred your sentencing by enrolling you in the deferred prosecution program. What else do you want? All you can do is to try hard ... really hard to fulfil the requirements.” — (U6)
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2. Application of SoberMotion as a complement to current practices for the delivery of effective interventions
The supervision of DUI offenders can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Besides, it would be easy for a probation officer to overlook many of the events that occur between meetings. Alerts to probation officers concerning abnormal events resulted in phone calls to four of the six participants who were not sober during the study period. They claimed that they tried to listen to the probation officer’s suggestions in order to pass.
“I was shocked when the probation officer called me. I was wondering if anything was wrong. I then realized that the officer only wanted to know why I suddenly started drinking after being sober for several weeks.” — (U8)
