As you probably know by now, you’re not supposed to touch your face. Because, you know, if your hand’s infected, touching your face brings the virus close to your eyes, nose, and mouth – the three places where the virus can actually get in your system and, potentially, multiply in your body. Other than an ever-present awareness of everything you’re doing at the moment, though, how the heck are you supposed to ensure you never make that mistake? The Immutouch offers the perfect solution.
At first glance, it looks like an old-school fitness band. You know, the kind with no screen, no buttons, and no fancy elements – just an innocuous-looking band that you wear on your wrist with a built-in case for the integrated hardware. Instead of recording your activity output, though, the darn thing is designed to monitor your hand movement, automatically alerting you whenever your hand is about to touch your face.
The Immutouch is a smart wearable that you put on the wrist of your dominant hand, since that’s the one you’re most likely to be using to touch your face. If you want to be sure, though, you can wear one band in each wrist, so you get alerted, regardless of which hand you end up using to scratch your nose, slap your cheeks, or wipe off something from the side of your mouth. Any time you touch your face, the band will start vibrating, only turning the motor off once it detects you’ve removed your hand from the vicinity. Basically, it’s a behavior trainer – one that’s likely prove immensely useful and, potentially, life-saving in this weirdest of timelines we find ourselves in.
To begin using the band, you start by pairing it with the companion app, which will instruct you to touch various parts of your face for calibration. Once it’s able to accurately detect the action, the band will automatically detect when you’re touching those areas and begin vibrating. Aside from letting you know at the exact moment, the app also logs every time you perform the unwanted behavior, so you can look back at any progress you’ve made as face-touching becomes more and more of a conscious behavior that you’re able to avoid.
The Immutouch is water-resistant, so you can wash your hands regularly to clean off any infections without causing damage to the device. Each full charge of the onboard battery should keep it running for up to 24 hours, so you can keep this on throughout the day and charge it only during those times you’re sleeping. And yes, there’s an option to keep the vibrations off, in case you want to put on make-up, shave your beard, or intentionally do any other stuff to your face – just make sure to turn it back on, unless you want to be oblivious to your face-touching habits once again. The band, by the way, is 10.9 inches long, so it should fit most adult wrists without any problem.
Want one? The Immutouch is available now, priced at $49.99.