---
title: "NASA Invents Wearable That Scolds You For Touching Your Face"
description: "A team at NASA has figured out a way to stop touching your face during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: a pendant that scolds you every time you try."
date: "2020-06-29"
modified: "2020-06-29"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-wearable-scolds-touching-face"
categories:
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "JPL"
  - "NASA"
  - "the digest"
---

# NASA Invents Wearable That Scolds You For Touching Your Face

![A team at NASA has figured out a way to stop touching your face during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: a pendant that scolds you every time you try.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/nasa-wearable-scolds-touching-face.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: JPL\</em\>*

## 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.

https://youtu.be/vdIBC7C6r80

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](<https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/08/health/coronavirus-touching-your-face-trnd/index.html>) 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](<https://github.com/nasa-jpl/Pulse>), 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](<https://futurism.com/phycisist-coronavirus-magnets-nose>) 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](<https://mashable.com/article/nasa-coronavirus-pulse-necklace/>) \[*Mashable*\]

**More on that physicist:** *[Physicist Tries to Build Device to Prevent Coronavirus, Gets Magnets Stuck Up Nose](<https://futurism.com/phycisist-coronavirus-magnets-nose>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)