Two interesting inventions for smokers

I've just been amazed with two new inventions I found round the Internet. They're funny stuff, but with some sense of consciousness. I'm sure they won't work in Argentina, but it's really interesting anyway! How creative people our world has!
I leave here the articles and the pics for you to know what I'm talking about.

The Smoking Jacket

The Smoking Jacket, by Fiona Carswell, has a built-in pair of lungs on the front that act as an iconographic "warning system". The polite smoker can blow the smoke into a "container" at the collar, in order to avoid blowing it in the faces of people around them. The smoke then filters into a set of see-through lungs at the front of the jacket. Over time the lungs, which have an air-filter back, should darken from cigarette smoke.

I asked Fiona to explain me how it works: "When wearing the jacket, the smoker exhales cigarette smoke into a one-way air valve in the collar, trapping it in. The smoke is then channelled through some tubing to a pair of plastic lungs on the front of the jacket. Inside the lungs is air-filter material which darkens to a brownish stain after repeated exposure to smoke.

The lungs aren't completely airtight, so the smoke will eventually seep out, allowing it to be used many times."

So how did you get the idea? "My inspiration was not to change people, but to see if visceral, comic information displays could cause self-awareness and reflection in a way that literal, numerical displays can't.

As it turned out, some smokers loved wearing the jacket, and wanted to wear it even when not smoking. However, as soon as it started to darken, that was the point at which there was a disconnect and they couldn't reconcile feeling pride in something that other people thought was 'gross'."

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/05/the-smoking-jac.php

Coughing doll

More projects seen at the RCA Interaction Design show this Summer.

The Smoke doll has been designed to help decrease the amount of cigarette smoke that children are being exposed to.

The physical breathing behaviour of the toy depends on the amount of passive smoke it is exposed to. When it gets to the child, it reacts to the child's touch and breathes very calm, regular and normal. When exposed to smoke, the doll starts breathing by itself and gets more and more excited about inhaling the cigarette smoke. Over time, the inhaled smoke destroys the doll's breathing until it becomes irregularily, coughing and finally ceases simultaniously with the appearence of nicotine stains on its outside. The doll can be cured, but only by the breath of a non-smoker (sensors recognise the presence of carbon monoxide in breath.)The parents' realization that they are about to destroy the child's toy and that their smoking habits might be revealed to their social surroundings by an either healthy or sick doll will help to make them think about their smoking behaviour around children.

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2006/07/more-projects-s.php