INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In the age of coronavirus, we all have to resist the urge to touch our faces
disorder that compels people to pull out their hair.So over the last week, Slightly Robot redesigned their wearable as the Immutouch, a
wristband that vibrates if you touch your face
Its accelerometer senses your hand movement 10 times per second
Based on calibrations the Immutouch takes when you set it up, it then buzzes when you touch or come close to touching your eyes, nose, or
A companion app helps you track your progress as you try to keep your dirty mitts down.The goal is to develop a Pavlovian response whereby
Your brain internalizes the negative feedback of the vibration, training you with aversive conditioning to ignore the desire to scratch
Unlike a venture-backed startup beholden to generating returns for investors, Slightly Robot was funded through a small grant from the
University of Washington in 2016 and bootstrapped since.Slightly Robot and Immutouch co-founders (from left): Joseph Toles, Justin Ith, and
ripping out their hair, Immutouch could potentially be effective
University Of Michigan researchers found the vibrations reduced long and short-term hair pulling
opening Facebook.Perhaps smartwatch makers like Apple could develop cheap or free apps to let users train themselves using hardware they
measures like 20-second handwashing to slow the spread of coronavirus
vector for infection absent from pandemics of past centuries
