By tracking arm and body motion, it is possible to develop an automatic alert system to send video reminders about the benefits of quitting tobacco by using wearable sensor technology.

A research team from the Case Western Reserve University created the sensors to detect arm and body motions associated with smoking. The app then automatically sends 20 to 120-second video messages to smokers regarding the health and financial benefits of not smoking. 

The researchers claimed that this mobile alert system might be the first app which combines an existing online platform, mindfulness training and a personalized plan to quit smoking. They found that the technology demonstrated more than 98-percent accuracy in sensing “lighting up” from other similar motions. 

Ming-Chun Huang, an assistant electrical engineering and computer science professor who led the technical part of this study said, “We’ve been able to differentiate between a single motion, which could be confused with eating or drinking, and a sequence of motions more clearly linked to the act of smoking a cigarette.”

This system was tested last year by a research team of electrical engineering and computer science departments at the Case School of Engineering in association with a clinical psychologist at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.