Some people use the patch or nicotine gum. Other use hypnosis or go cold turkey.

But if those don’t work for you, Kansas University researchers are coming up with another way to help smokers kick the habit — by using a personal digital assistant.

Researchers are developing software that can be used in handheld PDAs to help people reduce their smoking by putting them on a smoking schedule.

James Grobe, assistant professor of psychology, and Delwyn Catley, assistant professor of preventative medicine and public health at KU Medical Center, are studying the effects of scheduled smoking on 25 smokers in the Lawrence area.

The research is being funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

At first, smokers are allowed to light up when the urge hits them, and that pattern is recorded by the computer program. After that, smokers then smoke only when the computer program on their PDA notifies them.

Grobe said smokers following the schedule find smoking less pleasurable, which may lead to them quitting.

One of the reasons smoking routines are successful is that they disrupt old habits and force smokers to develop new coping skills, Grobe said

And being told to smoke when you don’t want to makes the cigarette less rewarding, he said

KU researchers say it will take a few more years before their software is ready for the market. They are first studying the science behind how scheduled smoking works so they can improve on existing scheduled smoking products now on the market.