"Smart deodorant" is now a thing, thanks to two PU grad students

We’ve got smartphones, smart cars, smart locks, smart watches, and more than enough other smart things that promise to make human intellect obsolete. What’s next, smart...deodorant?Oh, wait. It looks like our mechanical overlords-in-the-making will soon have access to your armpits, too, thanks to ClickStick, a Kickstarter project by Princeton grad students Carla Bahri and Gilad Arwatz. The crowdfunding campaign, which is less than $300 shy of its $55,000 goal with 9 days left, promises a stick of deodorant that applies the perfect amount of deo to your armpits at the touch of a button.While smart deodorant might not be the next logical advancement in smart technology, we've got to admit the ClickStick seems pretty awesome. It's actually a special holder for ClickStick's deodorant pouches, with a button that releases an exact amount of gel deodorant each time. The idea is that, when you normally put on deodorant, you either put it on while your shirt is on, and get the shirt full of deodorant on the way to your armpit; or, you put it on while you're getting dressed, but then you don't know how much to put on or how long to wait for it to dry. The ClickStick puts an end to this daily struggle. The deodorant is trapped inside the container until you release it with the "magic activation button," which you press once the stick is at your armpit. The button dispenses the same amount of deodorant each time, and you can change the amount (and order refills) using the companion mobile app (man, these guys thought of everything!).Man, I did not wake up this morning thinking I'd explain the nitty-gritty of deodorant application. But for Carla Bahri and Gilad Arwatz, the co-creators and current Ph.D. candidates at Princeton in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, getting the ClickStick right has been a top priority since their work began on the project this past summer. It has special significance for each of them: Arwatz hopes the ClickStick will reduce the plastic waste that results from constantly buying and throwing out disposable deodorant sticks, and Bahri seeks to make everyday tasks like applying deodorant easier, since her father suffered from ALS and found these simple tasks difficult.Keep an eye out for more coverage to come from The Ink, especially as the ClickStick reaches its goal of raising $55,000. In the meantime, you can check out the Kickstarter campaign here.