Worldwide, over one billion people regularly smoke cigarettes. Smoking is a major public health threat for both smokers and non-smokers alike, and reducing the number of smokers would be a significant societal benefit. Most current smokers would like to quit, but the addictive nature of cigarettes makes quitting difficult. Research has shown that the success of a quit attempt increases greatly with third party intervention, however intervention methods rely on a smoking-cessation reporting mechanism, and evidence indicates that smokers are unreliable at self-reporting.
To solve this problem, we have created Monoxalyze, a keychain- sized smoking-cessation verification device. Monoxalyze is a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) carbon monoxide breathalyzer that pairs with a smartphone to track whether smokers have quit—or not. Monoxalyze identifies the user through facial recognition on the smartphone, and Monalyze authenticates the Monoxalyze device through visible light authentication between LEDs on the front of the Monoxalyze device and the smartphone's camera. Monoxalyze also uses an internal pressure sensor as a wakeup mechanism and to verify that a user is actually exhaling through the Monoxalyze deivce.