In a mission to help end car accidents related to drunk driving – as well as to more frankly avoid a DUI violation and just bad behavior in general – Breathometer, Inc., a company based in Burlingame, California, has developed a breathalyzer app for the smartphone.

Resembling a keychain, Breathometer works by being plugged into the headphone jack of an iPhone or Android (News - Alert). The user then blows into it and, using the corresponding app, can read his/her blood alcohol concentration level.

The founder and CEO of Breathometer, Charles Michael Yim, explains that the app wasn't created “just to address the risks associated with drinking and driving, but to help people, their friends and family, all to make smart and safer choices when consuming alcohol.”

In a civilization where excess drinking is a problem even, and possible especially in areas where driving isn't as common a component – such as the bar-laced streets of NYC, which are sure to encounter some boozey intemperance this coming St. Patricks Day – this app strikes as an incredibly timely, if not long overdue development.

To begin shipping this coming summer, Breathometer asked to raise $25,000 through its Indiegogo campaign. That number has already been surpassed, with over $34,000 raised as of last morning. The product sells for $20, but if you pay more you have a color choice. Pledges of $500 get users a lifetime membership to Breathometer products (prompting the question: how many more breathalyzer products can the company come up with?), a T-shirt and two tickets to the Breathometer launch party in San Francisco. 

Whether that party, featuring the party-animal DJ act LMFAO, will have an open bar is not mentioned. For the first time, maybe we'll hope it doesn't.