The Lightir wants to help you stop smoking

A lighter that will help you ditch cigarettes might sound counterintuitive, but the team behind the Lightir have some innovative ideas that could actually help compulsive smokers kick the habit.

The little gizmo is the size of a normal lighter but has a lot more inside. It comes with a built-in Bluetooth 4.0 chip and instead of a flame, it uses an electric heating wire, powered by a rechargeable battery that should be good for 60-80 lights per charge. (There’s a safety feature to ensure it can’t be ignited unless it’s being used properly.)

By using the Lightir with the accompanying app, users can monitor how often they’re lighting up and it will even calculate how much nicotine you’re inhaling and other handy stats. By using your phone’s camera to scan your pack’s bar code you can get more accurate data.

Even better, the app can control how many cigarettes you smoke: set it for your max for the day, and once you’ve lit up that number of times, it won’t work for the rest of the day. You can also set it so the lighter can’t be used at the times you mindlessly reach for a smoke, whether that’s first thing in the morning, or while you’re watching TV at night. Sure, there’s nothing to stop you going to buy another lighter or a box of matches. But you won’t be able to light up without thinking, and that’s the point. The idea is also that over time you’ll gradually cut down. You can even specify certain places you’re not allowed to smoke, and there’s a social media sharing aspect to the app, too. It only syncs with iOS 6 and above for now, but the designers plan to make it available for other phones in future.

They’re currently raising money on Kickstarter to bring the Lightir to market and have so far raised just $60 of their $1,250 goal but still have 30 days to go. Plans are initially to ship in the US only but with over 10 million smokers in the UK and 100,000 smoking-related deaths each year, maybe the NHS should put in a bulk order.