A team of Seattle entrepreneurs looking for some kind of answer to slow the spread of novel coronavirus has developed a smart wristband that vibrates if the person wearing it tries to touch his face.
Along with hand washing, the leading advice being relayed to the public during the global epidemic has been to avoid touching the eyes, nose and mouth to keep the virus from entering the body. Immutouch is a wearable solution that could help remind people of habits that will keep them healthy.
Founders Matthew Toles, Joseph Toles and Justin Ith have been working for the past three years on another bracelet through their company Slightly Robot. That device was designed to address such behavior as compulsive hair pulling, skin picking and fingernail biting, and when the first COVID-19 death occurred in the Seattle area, the creators knew they had something that could help.
Repurposing existing inventory of printed circuit boards and portions of the Slightly Robot codebase, Immutouch went from idea to product launch in just seven days. With a gravimeter built into the band, the device is calibrated to a smartphone and tracks a user’s personal movements and sensitivity, vibrating when a hand enters a pre-calibrated position on the face.
“A problem the size of COVID-19 requires everyone to do their part, large or small,” Matthew Toles said in a news release. “The three of us happened to be uniquely well equipped to tackle this one task and felt it was our duty to at least try.”
Ith, who previously spent time as a product lead at Madrona Venture Labs, viewed the coronavirus outbreak as especially personal.
“My father has an autoimmune disease that requires him to take immunosuppressant medication,” Ith said. “Being in his late 60s with a compromised immune system, I’m trying my best to keep the communities around him and my family clean and safe.”
Parts for Immutouch are sourced from around the world, and the band is being assembled by the team in Seattle. Priced at $49.99, the small company is acutely aware of concerns around panic buying, pseudoscientific medical claims, and profiteering and it breaks down the material and operating costs on its website.
“We’re not looking to make money,” Ith said. “We are selling each unit nearly at cost, accounting for cost of materials, fabrication, assembly, and handling. We are a small team with limited upfront capital so we have to order components in small batches. Our hope is that as more people show reception to the idea, we can order larger quantities, reduce the price, and make it more accessible.”
The Immutouch app is available for iOS and Android.
Slightly Robot had been working on another project related to the detection of overeating in the form of compulsive snacking and binge eating when coronavirus first hit the Seattle area. That project is in the prototype stage and the team hopes to start alpha testing within a month of things “getting back to normal,” Ith said.
