QuiSmo

Para qué sirve

QuiSmo is a wearable gadget which aids the user to "Quit Smoking" by monitoring their smoke intake. The ring works as a smoke sensor synced to the wearer's phone which calculates amount of smoke they have surrounded themselves with, over the span of a week.

Qué te inspiró

Smoking is one of the biggest health threats the world has ever faced. Smoking is responsible for the highest amount of avoidable deaths, killing more than 7 million people each year. While quitting is guaranteed to reduce these risks, once the habit is formed it becomes extremely hard to quit. In addition to the active smokers, passive smokers are also at a massive risk with a death toll of over 800,000 per year due to inhaling second hand smoke. We wanted to create a gadget which aids the wearer in avoiding the risks caused from cigarette smoke by monitoring the wearer's proximity to the smoke and compare it to hazardous smoke levels.

Cómo funciona

The product is a ring-shaped electronic gadget with inbuilt smoke sensors synced to the wearer's mobile device. The ring has small parallel openings which enables the smoke to enter the ring and trigger the piezoelectric sensor. The sensor sends out pulses which can be recorded and translated to quantity of smoke potentially inhaled through the use of a special algorithm. The data is then sent to the app which translates the quantity into an easy to understand format by explaining the damage done to various parts of the body in real time and throughout the week. It alerts the wearer when the smoke consumption reaches a critical level to vacate the smoke infested area. The ring also has a detachable portion which consists the battery and can be charged by connecting it to the adapter or a USB port. Biological profile consisting of age, weight, height and smoking habits are input by the user, which is then used to determine critical smoke levels.

Proceso de diseño

Initially, the concept was to develop a wearable gadget which alerts the user to potentially hazardous quantities of smoke consumed. This idea was then refined to be the most inconspicuous piece of wearable accessory - a ring. The alarm was designed to be similar to that of a photoelectric smoke alarm. This design caused several concerns such as miniaturizing the photoelectric alarm to fit inside a small ring. Another obstacle was ensuring that the light beam does not get interrupted till enough area for incoming smoke to trigger the alarm is provided, which turned out to be incredibly difficult given the curvature of a ring. Following these concerns, the sensor type was designed to be similar to that of an ionization smoke alarm which was soon discarded because of health concerns due to use of radioactive elements. The other alternatives considered were a chemical soaked sensor sheet and a reagent filled compartment but both alternatives were unable to provide an accurate measure of inhaled smoke. The final design consists of a piezoelectric sensor which is fine-tuned to react to mechanical push of cigarette smoke and send out pulses which are translated into measurable quantities of smoke depending upon the frequency and the duration of the sensor pulse.

Qué lo hace diferente

QuiSmo is the first of its kind anti-smoking gadget which not only sends periodic reminders to quit smoking but also measures the user's smoke consumption whether direct or passive and alerts them of the critical smoke inhalation based on their biological profile. The corresponding application records smoke inhalation activity and displays weekly progress as well as logs total smoke consumption since syncing the ring with their mobile devices. The technology offers real time as well as cumulative danger posed to a person due to active as well as passive inhalation of smoke. The device is a wearable accessory and can be viewed as a subtle fashion statement.

Planes para el futuro

We are conducting further research to sensitise the smoke sensors to differentiate between the different pollutants and measure the content of each individual air pollutant to give an accurate estimate of air quality. We wish to make this product commercially available to everyone so that people are better acclimated to deal with worsening climate conditions and take care of themselves in addition to observing in measurable terms the impact of contributing towards pollution. We are also working on introducing GPS to the gadget to create a segregated map with marked green zones and red zones depending upon the quality of local air.

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