Tag: cigarettes

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

Nicotrax connected cigarette case helps you to kick the stick

Even though smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the world, millions still do it every single day. Most of these people know how to quit, too, but it’s been proven that simply knowing how to doesn’t make it any easier. In any case, most solutions deal with the chemical dependency created by a smoking habit while ignoring the social and mental aspects that also contribute, making it very difficult to truly quit.

Nicotrax is aiming to give smokers a lot more support with its Bluetooth-connected cigarette case. Its Bluetooth-connected cigarette case tracks cigarette use over time with the accompanying iOS or Android app. Each time one is taken from the case, it relays information about the time and location taken along the people the user was with, all in an effort to identify unknown triggers.

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

The Quitbit smart lighter aims to help a bad habit go up in smoke

The Premise. On nearly any trip in public, it’s getting to the point where it would be uncommon not to see somebody wearing a fitness tracker. Getting healthy is a priority for thousands of people, and using technology to do so is a no-brainer these days. But in addition to encouraging good habits, there’s one habit that many people could stand to break in becoming healthier.

The Product. The Quitbit is a pocket-sized tracker for how many cigarettes a person smokes in a day. It, along with its proprietary app, can log how many cigarettes have been smoked, how long it’s been since a cigarette, and can even disable features until a threshold has been met. It’s able to do all of these because the Quitbit is also a flip-up lighter that functions like a car cigarette lighter, with heat coils. The device lasts a week without being recharged and can upload smoking data to social media, either in terms of how fewer cigarettes have been smoked in a week, or how much money has been approximately saved by reducing smoking.

The Pitch. The Quitbit’s campaign is extremely professional and confident, from the design of the product itself down to the supplemental materials available on its Kickstarter and Web site. The entire brand’s attitude is one of helping, not shaming, and that’s part of what makes this product so appealing for those that are cognizant of what smoking does to the human body. Quitbit needs $50,000 to get funded for prototyping, tooling, certification, and manufacturing.

The Perks. The Quitbit lighter and app are available to backers who pledge $79, and will be out at the end of this year. The lighter/tracker can be engraved with a personalized touch for $149.

The Potential. There’s a great amount of potential here for people who want to quit smoking by degrees, using hard data to do so. Because the Quitbit doubles as a lighter, it’s something that no smoker would want to be without, and the social aspects will get those who want to see their friends and family lead a more healthy lifestyle get involved with messages of encouragement. The design is simple, intuitive, and sharp, and the concept is unique enough to make this a great tool in the fight to quit smoking for good, perhaps then being passed on to a friend who can make use of it.

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Health and Wellness

Mynus wants to help smokers quit one step at a time

The Premise. Quitting smoking is challenging because the body learns to depend on nicotine. Gums and patches exist, but can be difficult to self-regulate, and the same goes for e-cigarettes, which sometimes reinforce the habit more than they help reduce intake.

The Product. Mynus is a small-flask sized device that smokers might not expect to be able to smoke with. Not only does it let them smoke, though, it’s designed to help them quit by reducing their nicotine intake over time. The product uses a series of step-down filters that progress from allowing 100% of the smoke through down in 10% increments to 10% itself. This creates a way that smokers can gradually wean themselves off of the bad stuff while also increasing the value of their cigarettes because the smoke stays in the Mynus chamber. Additionally, there’s almost no second-hand smoke or cigarette smell, and by having the device on-hand at all times, a fix is just a mouthpiece and a filter away.

The Pitch. CEO of Epuphany and Mynus inventor Kelly Adamic explains how the product began as a way for his hospital bed-ridden friend to have a smoke in a place he certainly wouldn’t be allowed to. From there, Kelly’s passion for a world without smokers took shape, and Mynus was adapted to allow smokers to quit gradually and on their own terms. Unlike many other anti-smoking campaigns, Mynus keeps the heavy-handedness of statistics to a minimum, and stresses that it allows smokers to still enjoy a cigarette at a level that’s satisfying for them. Mynus wants to raise $500,000 to hit the market and hopefully revolutionize the process of quitting smoking.

The Perks. Mynus is expected to start helping smokers quit in November 2014, and backers can get one for $165, with a Platinum-plated Founders edition available for $375. There’s even a almost ludicrous tier that offers 25 Mynus devices for $3,995.

The Potential. Anything that can help people quit smoking is definitely going to attract attention, but Mynus is a double-edged sword. By having a device that eliminates virtually all over the smoke and odor, desperate smokers might be inclined to use it to sneak smokes  in places they would normally not be able to. And let’s not even get into what the citizens of Washington and Colorado might try to pull off with this. Ultimately, it’s up to the owner how Mynus is used, and that’s why it could both be a huge success or failure when it comes to helping people actually quit.