Smart lighter helps people quit smoking

PanARMENIAN.Net - Slighter, a Lebanese start-up, wants to encourage the public to kick the habit of smoking with a smart lighter that creates a personalized cessation plan, Tech Times says.

During the first week, the smart lighter tracks the user's smoking habit, recording when and how frequently they used the device to light a cigarette. The smart lighter then uploads the data into a companion app that creates a personalized plan to help the user reduce and eventually stop smoking.

Slighter works by following the method known as Nicotine Fading, a smoking reduction technique that gradually reduces the number of cigarettes a smoker uses daily to condition the mind and body to become less reliant on nicotine.

The device creates and follows a schedule. A screen on the smart lighter displays a countdown to let the user know when they can smoke again. The device also disables the flame, preventing the user to smoke outside of the allotted time.

There is still a cheat button that allows the user to light a cigarette, but the device will remember and log it into the app. When it is time to smoke, the device will send the user a notification that will come as a haptic vibration, a sound, or the screen will light up.

"That's the science of behaviorism, which says that you can teach anything by a carefully designed program of step-by-step reinforcement," stated founder Samer El Gharib. "Whenever they become conditioned, the algorithm will discover that and we start removing notifications from their program."

According to the start-up, Beta testing showed that using the device resulted in a 40 percent reduction over a three-month period. Users reported experiencing fewer or no symptoms of withdrawal.