Researchers from Northwestern Medicine have created a smart necklace that resembles a lapis blue pendant and can detect smoking considerably more accurately than earlier systems. It does this by using thermal sensors to record heat signatures.
A customer smokes marijuana during the grand opening of Smacked, a brand new dispensary owned by Roland Conner, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City on January 24, 2023. - This is the first legal cannabis dispensary in New York owned by someone with a prior cannabis conviction and the second legal dispensary in the state.
SmokeMon
SmokeMon is a necklace that entirely protects a smoker's privacy by only monitoring heat and not images, as per a press release on Monday, Feb. 13.
According to lead researcher Nabil Alshurafa, associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, this new device extends much beyond a person's daily cigarette consumption.
"We can detect when the cigarette is being lit, when the person holds it to their mouth and takes a puff, how much they inhale, how much time between puffs and how long they have the cigarette in their mouth," Alshurafa said in a statement.
These aspects are called smoking topography and it is significant because it enables scientists to estimate harmful carbon monoxide exposure among smokers and under the connection between chemical exposure and diseases related to tobacco consumption such as cancer, stroke, lung disease, heart disease, and many more.
It also helps smokers to quit the habit by employing smoking topography and understanding its relation to relapses from a person who already quit smoking.
The wearable tech could predict when a person is likely to relapse by keeping track of their smoke intake. It will also identify when an intervention is needed and notifies a health coach to prevent the relapse.
The efficiency of the instrument in detecting smoking puffs and topography from electronic cigarettes will also be investigated by the researchers.
Read also: Lowering Risk of Heart Disease 2023: Best Sleep Trackers and Top Free Walking Apps to Help You
Death by Smoking
Each year, smoking is said to be responsible for more than 8 million deaths worldwide. In the US, smoking continues to be the primary contributor to more than 480,000 deaths annually, or one in every five deaths.
Around 12.5% of adults in the US are smokers and it was estimated in 2018 that it will cost the country over $600 billion in healthcare spending and lost productivity.
"Now we can begin to test the effectiveness of this device in improving the success rate of smoking cessation programs by preventing relapse in smokers who are planning to quit," Alshurafa said.
The team will also test whether real-time feedback and interventions can be more efficient than regular care.
The study is due to be published in Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies.
Related Article: Researchers Develop Pill-Shaped Ingestible Robotics, Can Help Better Detect Gastro Issues Early On
