Social e-cigarettes vibrate when near other e-smokers

E-cigarettes may have been introduced to be less damaging for a smoker’s health, but by removing the need for smokers to extricate themselves before lighting up, they were also designed to make smoking sociable again. Feeling that their social credentials can still be taken a step further however, US-based Blu Cigs are testing a new e-cigarette pack designed to connect their e-smokers. According to a FastCompany report, the new e-cigarette packs will contain a small chip which will emit and scan for signals from other packs. When within fifty feet of each other, these packs, which also charge the e-cigarettes they hold, will then flash a blue light and vibrate to alert their owner that there is another Blu Cigs e-smoker nearby. Once they find each other, the pack will then enable the two e-smokers to exchange contact information from their social networking profiles. All of the packs will also alert their carriers whenever they walk past a shop that sells Blu Cigs products. The New York Times reports that Blu Cigs have plans to connect the packs to a smartphone app to enable real-time communications, and to develop a tracking system to enable the packs to deliver reports on how much users are smoking. The packs will go on sale this June, retailing at USD 80 for a pack of five e-cigarettes. However, whether the fact that two smokers have chosen Blu Cigs as their preferred e-cigarette brand will truly stimulate social interaction remains to be seen. How could your product incorporate a compelling social element of its own? (Related: From smoking bans to ashvertising — Appealing to gravanity of smokers who plan to quit — Smoking is bad. Art is good.) Spotted by: Katherine Noyes