Skip to main content

A Cigarette Lighter that Makes You Want to Quit Smoking



In an earlier post, I wrote about the increasing risk factor of cancer primarily attributed to smoking. I also wrote that Lebanon has the highest smoking rate among Arab countries, the highest cancer rate among developing countries, and competes developed counties in cancer rates. Many smokers want to stop but do not know how. They start with the will to do so, but often falter because there is no incentive. Telling them that they might die or get cancer as a result does not have an effect, as suggested by studies in psychology. This is  where Samer Gharib invented  Slighter (Smart Lighter). He used tracking technology and gamification to help the smoker track and v lessen his smoking by first having him being aware of the smoking habit and then by getting incentives to lessen his smoking. Slighter follows the basic routine of Learn, Control, Break.



2017-07-16_1-30-52


Slighter tracks your smoking habit so that you are aware of it. It triggers whenever you use it to light your cigarettes. Slighter then analyzes your smoking habit. It then gives you the mechanism to break your smoking habit. What Slighter needs to add however is more focus on the last stage, Break. Knowing many heavy smokers, I know they are aware of their smoking habit. They even how many cigarettes they smoke. So, stats is not an issue. What is more important is that Slighter needs to use more insights from social psychology in the last stage. Social psychology insights have proven to be highly effective in behavior modifications, from using towels in hotel rooms to electricity use, you name it. Perhaps the last stage would compare the smoker to others who smoke at the same range in the outset, or at the same age, and show how that smoker compares to others in the same locale and internationally. Badges would be given and leaderboards would be used to help him quit smoking. Nike+ Fuel band would be a great example of this.


2017-07-16_1-48-57


Slighter uses a mobile app to track your smoking habit, but it is still in Beta version. In fact, Slighter requests Beta tester, and my guess is that they are a lot. So, if you are a smoker, and yearning to stop follow this link and fill out your bet testing info to help develop Slighter.


Here is a video featuring Slighter.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why some kids can’t spell and why spelling tests won’t help

  Misty Adoniou , University of Canberra A couple of years ago, early one morning, I received an SMS advising “resadents to stay indoors because of a nearby insadent”. I was shocked by the spelling, as much as the message. Surely, I thought, if it was a real message then the spelling would be correct. Spelling matters. In a text message from a friend teeing up a night out “c u at 8” is fine - but in an emergency warning text from a government agency, I expect the spelling to be standard. But why is it that some people struggle with standard spelling? Spelling remains the most relentlessly tested of all the literacy skills, but it is the least taught. Sending a list of words home on Monday to be tested on Friday is not teaching. Nor is getting children to write their spelling words out 10 times, even if they have to do it in rainbow colours. Looking, covering, writing and checking does not teach spelling. Looking for little words inside other words, and doing word searches ar...
Post a Comment
Read more

Don’t let the rise of Europe steal world history

The centre of a map tells you much, as does the choice where to begin a story, or a history. Arab geographers used to place the Caspian Sea at the centre of world maps. On a medieval Turkish map, one that transfixed me long ago, we find the city of Balasaghun at the heart of the world. How to teach world history today is a question that is going to grow only more and more important. Last summer in the United States, a debate flared when the influential testing agency Advanced Placement (AP) announced a change to its attendant courses, a change in which ‘world history’ would begin in 1450. In practice, beginning world history in 1450 becomes a story about how Europeans came to dominate not one but all the continents, and excludes the origins of alphabets, agriculture, cities and civilisation. Before the 1400s, it was others who did the empire-building, drove sciences, medicine and philosophy, and sought to capitalise on and extend the trading networks that facilitated the flow and exc...
Post a Comment
Read more

When the Human Factor Dysfunctions the Synergy of a Learning and Prayer Facility

Every Friday Prayer I am used to go to two Masjids where I feel comfortable in terms of Khotba (Oration) and Salah. What I usually seek for in a Friday Prayer is a lesson that “sticks in my mind” and that I can reflect upon as I connect it to life . At least this is one of the intended learning outcomes of Friday Prayers, to strengthen Muslims’ faith by offering advice, casting a new knowledge about Islam that many would otherwise would be oblivious, or reminding Muslims of issues that they might have forgotten due to their daily work and commitments. Last Friday however, I went to a new Masjid upon my friend’s suggestion. Regrettably, I went out of that Friday Prayer with only one lesson: In a learning setting, human capacity is enormously superior to the the institutional facility. As I stepped into Masjid Al Rahma, I felt a sudden but salient surge of wholeness due to the magnificent structure and only honed by the great scent. As I was early for the Friday Prayer time, I had ...
Post a Comment
Read more