I'm a heavy smoker and i tried to quit two times. the first thing one should know is that quitting is a gradual process; that means i have to smoke less each day instead of suddenly totally giving up smoking, that in order not to be under constant distress caused by the lack of nicotine . the main quitting idea is to start by setting a limited number of cigarettes i smoke each day during the first few days of the program and continue by decreasing this number for every day, as days go by. that's easily achievable by setting a minimum time period of time between each cigarette for the first few days and increasing that period untill it's so great that the habit is lost. for example i want to smoke a cigarette every hour during the first three days, and then a cigarette every 90 minutes the 4th day, then a cigarette every 120 minutes the 5th and so forth. in order to keep track of this minute count between cigarettes i have to do a lot of counting, adding, substracting and memorizing exact times in order to find out if i should allow myself to smoke or not; and that's a little too much to ask from someone who, at some moments. can hardly visualize anything more than a cigarette being lit up..

the holder i imagine would do all this calculation and memorizing with the indisputable precision of a desireless machine. the last-lit-cigarette-time would be fetched using the open-sensor and using that time and the date fields it would calculate and display whether i'm allowed to smoke or not. the interface used in order for the user to visualize the holder's conclusion regarding smoking permission is a round LCD screen resembling a clock, more like a section of a disc. it's full green when the non-smoking time is up and i'm allowed to smoke and full red just after i opened it in order to take a cigarette out. during the non smoking-time, the red section of the disc is growing smaller as the non-smoking time ends, approaching the glorious moment when it becomes green and i can open the pack and smoke again. After i quit smoking i give it to another heavy smoker who wants to quit, so i won't bear the burden of owning something such as useless to me as a cigarette holder.
-- sweet, Nov 11 2005

Try this http://www.quitsmoking.com/cigcounter/
[Shz, Nov 11 2005]

Or this http://www.linkman.com/
[Shz, Nov 11 2005]

The Fifth Element strikes again.
-- DrCurry, Nov 11 2005


//quitting is a gradual process//
Not necessarily. Either you're a smoker or you're not; if you're smoking less than you were last week, you're still a smoker. Just stop. Yes, it can be difficult; do you want to stop or not? If so, stop. If not, stop kidding yourself that you're stopping.
-- angel, Nov 11 2005


What angel said.
-- DrBob, Nov 11 2005



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