Flashing blue lights in the rearview mirror are never a good sign, but they can turn into a nightmare after a night of drinking. It would be nice to know if that .08 limit has been reached ‘hellip; before a breathalyzer comes into play. Well, there’s an app for that.

Harmonist Inc., a company founded by four University students, creates iPhone applications mainly geared toward college students. One of the newest applications is a blood alcohol concentration calculator.

Jack Zapple, a sophomore in international studies and CAO of Harmonist Inc, said ‘Over the Limit’ is an application that tracks a person’s blood alcohol concentration based on the drinks a person has consumed.

‘It works completely on the iPhone with no attachments needed. You type up your weight and gender one time and just keep track of the drinks you’ve had,’ Zapple said. ‘It keeps a log of what you’ve had to drink.’

Zapple said the device sends an alert once the BAC reaches the legal limit.

‘If it goes over .08, which is the legal limit in North Carolina, the number goes red at the top and lets you know if you’re over the limit,’ Zapple said.

Spencer Feuerstein, a junior in nuclear engineering, said he would find the application useful so as not to get in trouble with the police and to know when he has had too much to drive safely.

‘Even if it isn’t 100 percent accurate, it’s still a very good guideline,’ Feuerstein said. But would he trust it? ‘To a point. There’s some leeway from person to person to how it affects you. It could still be a little bit off.’

Addison Hardy, CTO of Harmonist Inc and a computer science student at Wake Tech, said there is an additional feature that offers to find a cab service.

‘It will find a taxi for you, locating you based on your GPS position,’ Hardy said. Feuerstein said he likes the ‘find a taxi’ feature because he would not have to search through his phone to find a cab company.

‘It makes it easier for the person who has already been drinking,’ Feuerstein said. ‘The only possible upgrade you could do is to find different [taxi] places and their prices for where you want to go.’

Hardy said the same formula used in breathalyzers is used to calculate the BAC for the application.

‘I took the formula a breathalyzer uses and I made it add based on time and the amount you’ve had,’ Hardy said.

Gender and weight are associated with BAC level, with males having more tolerance than females.

‘You get drunk a little bit quicker if you’re a female,’ Hardy said.

Other applications Harmonist Inc has created include DrumPro, LensTrack and StudySound. DrumPro allows the user to play select instruments, such as the maracas, triangle, tambourine and cowbell. LensTrack reminds the user when it is time to change contact lenses. Hardy said StudySound plays different soothing sounds, even in sleep mode.

‘It’s something to play in the background to help you focus,’ Hardy said.

Zapple echoed its usefulness. ‘It’s actually one of our best-selling apps,’ Zapple said.

Zapple said that while they are focusing on iPhone applications right now, they want to move to software development in the future. According to Zapple, the inspiration for Harmonist, Inc came from Kenan Simpson, a sophomore in economics and the CEO of the company.

‘I met him on Craig’s List,’ Zapple said. ‘One night we were in the library and we talked about starting a company. We went out the next week and got all the paperwork from downtown.’

Hardy said their original ideas stemmed from discussion about things the iPhone did not already offer.

‘We were just sitting around thinking of ideas and started brainstorming about things the iPhone could do that they can’t do already,’ Hardy said. T

he fourth founder of Harmonist, Inc is Charles Gras-najjar, a freshman in First Year College.