Making Contacts With Electronic Cigarettes

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 05/13/2011

The electronic cigarette manufacturer, Blu, has developed packs of electronic cigarettes with sensors that will let users know when other electronic cigarette users are nearby, according to a story by Joshua Brustein for the New York Times. The new packs, which will go on sale next month for $80 for five electronic cigarettes, are equipped with devices that emit and search for the radio signals of other packs. When they get within 50 feet of one another, the packs vibrate and flash a blue light. The reusable packs, which serve as a charger for the cigarettes, can be set to exchange information about their owners, including contact information on social networking sites that can be downloaded onto personal computers. The packs vibrate also when a smoker nears a retail outlet that sells Blu cigarettes. Later versions would be tethered to a smartphone through an app, allowing more options for real-time communication, said Jason Healy, the founder of Blu. The company planned also to develop a system through which the packs would monitor how much people were "smoking" and report back to them - or to their doctors, reported Brustein. Enditem