Coronavirus: NASA invented a wearable that reminds you not to touch your face

Touching your face is a difficult habit to break, so NASA set out to invent a solution.

The space agency developed a wearable dubbed PULSE that's meant to alert users when they're about to touch their face. The round pendant is worn around your neck, and when you raise your hands toward your head, it'll vibrate, reminding you to stop.

"The haptic feedback from a vibration motor simulates a nudge, reminding the wearer to avoid touching these entryways in order to reduce potential infection," NASA said on its website.

The idea is to help people curb the spread of the coronavirus, which is mostly contracted via respiratory droplets. Health experts warn that it could also spread via contact with infected surfaces. Touching your face with unwashed hands could bring COVID-19 closer to your eyes, nose and mouth.

PULSE is not exactly stylish or discrete, and NASA isn't selling the contraption. But the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory made building instructions available online if you want to make one yourself.

"We hope individuals or companies will replicate, refine or enhance PULSE and make it easily available for distribution," NASA said.

To create one, you'll need a 3-D printer, wire, a motor and other small materials.

The space agency isn't the first to develop DIY ways of curbing contagion during the pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis has led many to make hand sanitizer at home, using aloe vera and rubbing alcohol. People have also turned bras and old T-shirts into face masks.

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