Smart-Lighter Helps You Quit Smoking
What’s the Latest?
Following in the footsteps of other health-monitoring devices, a new internet-connected lighter is designed to help you quit smoking by measuring your tobacco intake. Called Quitbit, “users can set custom plans—so they can trim on intake at whatever pace they want—and see how much money they’ve saved by cutting back on packs along the way.” It also reveals the time since your last smoke, how many were consumed within a certain period of time, and lets you account for the times you shared a cigarette with a friend (or let someone borrow the lighter).
What’s the Big Idea?
“If you can measure it, you can manage it.” This is the principle behind Quitbit and other health measurement devices that, by effortlessly equipping users with data about what is happening in their own lives, claim to arm people with a kind of power called knowledge. “The product, which launched on Monday and is seeking $50,000 in funding pledges, is a pocket lighter that uses a heating coil similar to what’s found in cars. But whether you’re looking to quit or not, the lighter keeps track of every time you light up and logs that data in an accompanying app.”
