How do you stop teenagers from smoking?
AI and preventing teenage smoking
Some ask me why did I stay in the boring Innovation analytics domain. I always have the same answer, because I get to read a lot of cool stuff that is being researched.
Preventing smoking in children and teenagers is not new and has been a topic of research for a long time. But, the latest research uses the smoking industry uses Artificial intelligence and machine learning to prevent smoking by teenagers and children.
More and more malls, shops, and cigarette vending machines are now installed with image sensors. There was research on how to identify children and underage people and prevent cigarette sales to them. In that effort, artificial intelligence was used to identify the sales to underage children and then reporting it to the authorities. Most of such inventions never made it to machines due to the flaw in detection technologies.
Then the research shifted towards using ID cards before making a purchase and it solved the problem to some extent. But did it actually solve the problem? Unfortunately “No”. The children and teenagers were still buying cigarettes using fake ID cards or from dirty dealers.
Now there is research to use breath sensors, biometrics sensors, and chemical sensors to identify and prevent the unauthorized smoking.
How does this technique work?
Conventional cigarettes are evolving into electronic cigarettes. More and more people are preferring E-cigarettes over conventional cigarettes. The companies want to use E-cigarettes to prevent child smoking. These E-cigarettes can be installed with sensors that can detect data.
Some of these sensors are Pressure sensors, chemical sensors, Bluetooth, GPS, biometric sensors, etc.
Biometric sensing: The biometric sensors are simple. You can lock your cigarette and it won’t work until you authenticate and activate it with your biometrics. Before registering your biometrics on a cigarette for the first time, you are required to generate a profile on a webpage and authenticate your age using Identity proof. Then you need to register your biometrics every time you want to use the cigarette.
Pressure/ Sound sensors are more complex. They rely on the suction pressure of the user. The E-cigarette senses the suction pressure of a user and registers it continuously. The machine learning algorithms store and create a user profile that can identify whenever the smoking pattern changes. It can be due to bad health, stress, unauthenticated use, etc. Every time the AI detects there is a difference between the saved profile and the detected profile, it can ask the user to verify.
Since there is a lot of data available from a number of users. There are findings of differences in suction pressure between adults and children. The AI can leverage it and prevent the electronic cigarette from operating whenever the suction pressure is similar to the children.
Bluetooth & GPS are part of connection and communication technology. The AI uses these to detect the proximity of cigarettes. If the cigarette is detected in a school, non-smoker area, unauthorized location, etc. then the smoking can be stopped.
The benefit of using AI and sensors doesn’t end here. There are other benefits also. These sensors can detect the malfunctioning of a cigarette and prevent accidents from happening. With successful integration with phone apps, the apps would obtain data from these sensors and correlate the data with the data obtained from the smart-watches which continuously measure the biometrics of an individual. In the event of stress, high BP, low sugar, or any medical condition, the phone apps would be able to control the E-cigarette. Thus, the operation of e-cigarettes will be allowed only when it is not in a restricted zone, the smoker is healthy, and not a child.
Loved this story. I write about the latest technological research, innovations, productivity, and possibilities of future. You can now read latest technological insights, news, and updates for free by subscribing to my newsletter.
You can also check my stories on how AI is shaping the future :
How AI & ML are enhancing User Authentication technology?
What helped Toyota survive multiple recessions?
Agriculture 2.0 — AI, Machines, and Organic Farming
Thank you for reading. Please follow, clap, comment, and share to show your support. You can also help me by buying me a coffee — Support me on Ko-fi
