NASA Invents Wearable That Scolds You For Touching Your Face

Then NASA made the design open source, so anyone can make one.

No Touching

A team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab have built a prototype to fight the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: An electronic pendant that scolds you every time you lift your hands to your face.

 

The tiny device, called PULSE, is simple in design. It's equipped with a infrared proximity sensor, a coin-sized vibration motor, and a three volt battery. Once it notices that you're about to touch your face, the vibration motor triggers.

Quit It

Health experts have long recommended that you should abstain from touching your own face to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection. All it takes is a short touch to spread pathogens from your hands to your mouth or nostrils.

NASA doesn't have any plans to start selling the gadget, but it has generously made the entire plans for the small device open source, from schematics for the electronics to files for 3D printing the case.

Don't Try This at Home

The team seems to have had far more success at developing a device to stop you from touching your face than Australian astrophysicist Daniel Reardon, who got four small magnets stuck up his nose in late March while trying to develop a similar gadget.

READ MORE: NASA designed a vibrating necklace to help you stop touching your face [Mashable]

More on that physicist: Physicist Tries to Build Device to Prevent Coronavirus, Gets Magnets Stuck Up Nose