Quitbit, is a lighter that counts and limits the number of cigarettes you have per day. This Kickstarter project goes
straight to the source of your bad habit: the thing you use to light
your cigarettes. You can program the device to allow only a certain
number of cigarettes per day at certain intervals. If you go to light
another but have reached your limit for that day or time period, it
simply won’t work.
The $69 device uses a heating
element similar to that of a car lighter. It’s equipped with a sensor
technology that logs how long it’s being used. It’ll log your usage only
if it meets a certain trigger, which is currently rounded out at around
2½ seconds. It’ll also log only one use in the interval of three
minutes. This enables it to track only your smoking. So even if you share it with friends or play with it, you won’t.
Quitbit co-founder Ata Ghofrani,
a seven-year smoker who used the device to quit smoking six months ago,
says the product is meant as a complementary tool, rather than a
replacement to those methods.
“We think that our product is
very much like a scale,” Ghofrani told Yahoo Tech. “You can use Quitbit
to reduce your smoking completely, if you want to do it based on will
power, or you can also use it to slowly reduce, while using other things
to help.”
Quitbit gives: information. The smart
lighter funnels all of your usage habits into an easy-to-read display
screen, which tells you how many cigarettes you’ve smoked that day, and
how long it’s been since your last one. That data syncs via Bluetooth to
your Android or iOS device, so that you can check your habit even if
you happen to forget your lighter.
have to worry that you’re screwing with the program.
You might wonder: Why don’t I
just use that money to buy some nicotine patches? Or an e-cigarette?
Nicotine patches, as you might know, are often prohibitively expensive. A
two-week supply goes for around $50. E-cigarettes, meanwhile, are
prohibitively uncool-looking for many.
Having
it connect to your phone can also have practical benefits. You won’t
lose your lighter, because your phone tracks its location. And you can
monitor how much money you’ve saved as you’re cutting back.
And if you just can’t help but
complain a little about being denied a precious cigarette break, you can
always chat with a community of people in the support room of the
Quitbit smartphone app. Hey, you might not think it’s your thing, but
it’s a tried-and-true method for weaning people off of addictions.
The Quitbit has yet to be fully
funded, though the project has raised a little over a fifth of its
monetary target within its first 48 hours of launching. It’s currently
offering December 2014 deliveries for all $79 donations. Seven
months is a long time to wait to quit smoking. But if you don’t see any
better alternatives in the near future, why not try it out? Better this
than a Nike FuelBand that’ll collect dust in a corner.
Follow Alyssa Bereznak on Twitter
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