Patent Issued for Smoking cessation device (USPTO 11388933): Smokewatchers SAS

2022 AUG 04 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Smokewatchers SAS (Neuilly sur Seine, France) has been issued patent number 11388933, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Choukroun, Benjamin (Paris, FR), Serval, Thomas (Neuilly-sur-Seine, FR).

This patent was filed on June 6, 2019 and was published online on July 19, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are linked to causing cancer. Smoking cigarettes can lower life expectancy by 13.2 years for men, and 14.5 years for women. In the United States, cigarette smoking causes over 440,000 deaths per year. According to the America Lung Association, smoking is one of the most prevalent sources of preventable death worldwide.

“Quitting smoking and vaping is notoriously difficult. It is estimated that 52 percent of smokers try to quit smoking. However, 90 percent of smokers that attempt to quit smoking relapse. Many aids have been developed to quit smoking that are less harmful than cigarettes. For example, nicotine patches and nicotine gum have proven helpful in quitting smoking.

“Additionally, electronic cigarettes have been developed as an aid to quit smoking by providing a less harmful source of inhaled nicotine. Instead of burning nicotine and other chemicals like convention cigarettes, electronic cigarettes vaporize a mixture of nicotine and volatile chemicals. This nicotine rich vapor may be inhaled from the cigarette. The vapor does not contain many of the harmful carcinogens that are contained in cigarettes.

“However, despite these aids the failure rate of smokers trying to quit smoking is remarkably high, while the death toll is ever increasing. Thus, a profound need exists to implement an improved method to help smokers quit smoking.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The likelihood a smoker’s attempt to quit smoking will be successful is greatly increased when the psychological aspects of smoking are addressed. Nicotine is a physically addictive drug and is associated with many social activities, which increase the difficulty of quitting smoking. In fact, studies have shown that while counseling or medication alone increases the chances of quitting smoking, the combination is more effective. For instance, nicotine replacement products can help relieve withdrawal systems when people are quitting smoking. Additionally, individual and group counseling may also increase the likelihood an attempt to quit smoking will be successful, as it addresses the psychological and behavioral addiction to smoking.

“Unfortunately, the physiological and psychological aids to quit smoking are generally always separate. Therefore, many smokers attempt to quit smoking or vaping using one or the other. Additionally, the lack of integration between the physiological and psychological aids also reduces the effectiveness of an attempt to quit smoking. This is because, for example, the psychological reinforcement and support is not directly linked to the amount or actual status of the current usage of a smoker. Rather a smoker may discuss his subjective view of his success with the group, leading to dilution of social reinforcement mechanisms. Therefore, integration of the withdrawal and the group support aspects of quitting smoking would likely increase the success of an attempt to quit smoking.

“Furthermore, only some data and studies exist regarding the attributes of people that try to quit smoking and the precise withdrawal schedule that would be successful for each person. Therefore, the ability to record the withdrawal schedule that resulted in successes and failures based on a broad base of data would increase the efficacy the development of a withdrawal schedule that would be effective for a given individual.

“To address these difficulties and others, systems and methods have been developed to electronically manage a smoker’s attempt to quit smoking. This may include an electronic cigarette with a memory and ability to record the amount and/or duration of inhalation of nicotine vapor. Additionally, the electronic cigarette may be integrated with a smart phone application or other software to record usage and provide feedback to the smoker. The application may include an algorithm for the development of a withdrawal schedule for the user to quit smoking.

“In some examples, an electronic cigarette may include a microprocessor, a Bluetooth link, a battery, a vaporization system, an LED, a button, and a memory. The cigarette may include certain software or firmware linked to the microprocessor for executing the logic of the system. The microprocessor may monitor and record the number of puffs of a cigarette, the duration of each puff, the total inhaled time, the amount of nicotine ingested, the flow rate, and other aspects. The microprocessor may store the information locally, and/or send the information over the Bluetooth link to be stored externally.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system comprising: an electronic cigarette comprising: a vaporizing chamber; a vaporizer integrated with the vaporizing chamber; a storage tank in fluid communication with the vaporizing chamber, the storage tank storing a substance therein, the vaporizer configured to vaporize at least a portion of the substance for consumption; a controller configured to track data regarding usage of the electronic cigarette; and a transceiver coupled to the controller; and a computing device comprising an application in communication with the electronic cigarette via the transceiver, wherein the application determines a withdrawal schedule for a user of the electronic cigarette and tracks a goal progress of the user on the withdrawal schedule based on the tracked data regarding usage of the electronic cigarette in order to determine a goal progress indicator displayed on the electronic cigarette, wherein the goal process indicator visually communicates whether the user has met a target consumption of the substance based on the withdrawal schedule.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is wirelessly connected to the electronic cigarette via the transceiver.

“3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server in communication with the computing device.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the electronic cigarette is activated following a first transmission to the server.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises a server.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic cigarette is activated following a first transmission to the application.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises a display.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to: monitor a quantity of the substance in the storage tank, and based on the monitored quantity of the substance, generate an alert if the quantity of the substance is below a threshold level.

“9. The system of claim 1, further causing the application to display the withdrawal schedule.

“10. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to: receive the profile information associated with the user of the electronic cigarette, based at least in part on the received profile information, generate the withdrawal schedule, the withdrawal schedule including a recommended number of consumption uses for a predetermined amount of time, receive use data from the electronic cigarette, the use data including a number of actual consumption uses, compare the number of actual consumption uses during the predetermined amount of time with the recommended number of consumption uses, and based at least in part on the comparison, generate an indication of (i) a number of remaining consumption uses for the user, or (ii) that the user has exceeded the recommended number of uses for the predetermined amount of time.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the application is configured to display the withdrawal schedule.

“12. The system of claim 10, wherein the application is further configured to notify a witness of the user’s withdrawal schedule and actual consumption uses.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to, based at least in part on the comparison of the recorded use data to the determined substance withdrawal schedule, transmit an indication to the witness, the indication being representative of the comparison.

“14. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to, based at least in part on the recorded use data, transmit an indication to the witness, the indication being representative of a craving associated with the user.

“15. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to: select a computerized coach; and receive at least one message for providing social support to the user based at least in part on the selected computerized coach.

“16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computerized coach is an authoritarian type coach, a moderate type coach, or a laid back coach.

“17. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to interface with a health insurance provider to monitor progress data.

“18. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to interface with a health insurance provider to provide usage data and progress data to the health insurance provider.

“19. The system of claim 12, wherein the withdrawal schedule is determined based on an analysis of data about other users.

“20. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is configured to provide the goal progress indicator as a colored feature on a display of the computing device wherein a first color indicates the user has exceeded a goal, a second color indicates the user has not reached the goal, a third color indicates that the user is on track for meeting a goal, and a fourth color indicates that the user has no goal in progress, the first, second, third, and fourth colors are different from each other.

“21. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to display to the user the usage data.

“22. The system of claim 12, wherein the application is further configured to calculate a time since the last usage of the electronic cigarette and display an abstinence timer indicating the amount of time since the electronic cigarette was last smoked.

“23. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic cigarette includes a light emitting diode (LED) configured to display the goal progress indicator determined by the computing device.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Choukroun, Benjamin. Smoking cessation device. U.S. Patent Number 11388933, filed June 6, 2019, and published online on July 19, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11388933.PN.&OS=PN/11388933RS=PN/11388933

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