Over-eating and binge-eating are habits that people often develop as a result of going on extreme diets and following rigorous fitness regimes to shed those extra pounds. However, an American Company is trying to help people break these habits – with a ‘shocking’ wristband called ‘Pavlok’, which will be released by early 2015, and willcost around PKR24,800.
The new wrist gadget takes its inspiration from the ‘Pavlov theory’ – a process of behavior modification made famous by Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov,who conducted conditioning experiments on dogs that made them expect food every time a bell rang. With a design similar to the FitBit bracelet that similarly helps people lose weight by monitoring their calorie in-take, Pavlok can also be activated automatically or manually with the help of an app.
The creator of Pavlok, Maneesh Sethi, describes the innovative technology as “a personal coach on your wrist” that can help people become aware of their compulsive habits such as overeating or spending too much time on the internet. The device can dole out electric shocks if its users are doing something that they shouldn’t be doing. “The idea is everybody has these things they know they shouldn’t do,” said Sethi as reported by the Telegraph. He further explained that the device can particularly be used by people looking to lose weight by shocking them half way through their meal to overcome the habit of overeating. Furthermore, people who think they waste too much time on their Facebook and other social media apps can also break the habit by using Pavlok, as it can send a shock reminding people to look away from the screens of their mobile phones or computers.
While speaking to the Daily Dot website, Maneesh also mentioned that research conducted by his team reveals that self-applied shock is more effective than automated shock to help users become aware of unwanted habits and to overcome them.