Quotes of the Day

One of the last great tobacco cultures in Western Europe was extinguished last week, when Spain enacted a ban on smoking in the workplace and other public areas, angering smokers' rights groups. But the creative minds at Barcelona's Stereonoise, a seven-person firm that invents products for other companies, have come up with a device that allows smokers to pursue their habit without bothering anyone else.

Invented by Stereonoise founder Pep Torres, the device consists of hermetically-sealed tubes — one to hold the cigarette and another to purify the expelled smoke — and a battery-powered lighter. "An oxygen pump keeps the cigarette lit, and not a drop of smoke escapes," says Torres, 40. If the prototype generates enough buzz, he could yet market it. Torres developed the intentionally ridiculous device for a local exhibition that critiques holiday consumerism.

It's not the first stereonoise invention to comment on Spanish foibles. Last spring, just in time for Father's Day in the historically machista country, the company came out with Your Turn, a washing machine that uses biorecognition technology to prevent the same person from doing the laundry twice in a row.

Not all of the company's inventions are tongue-in-cheek. In the next few weeks, stereonoise will release a product intended to help combat Spain's serious drought. But Torres and his colleagues delight in inventions that make sly critiques. "We like to inject humor into our creations because people tend to tune out serious social commentary," he says. "But if you do it with humor, they listen."

• LISA ABEND
• A Spanish invention finds one possible way around new laws on smoking in the workplace