As our health institutions have told us time and again, we need to stop touching M.E.N., which stands for our mouth, eyes and nose. Saving the world has never been this easy.
But unfortunately, not easy enough. Touching our faces happens so absentmindedly that we’ve probably scratched our nose or rubbed our eyes hundreds of times before we catch it. That’s why a website like Do Not Touch Your Face (DNTYF) comes in handy.
This (free!) site trains your webcam onto your face so everytime you touch it, it’ll turn red and shout no. You also have the option of letting it notify you with a passive-aggressive pop-up if you don’t like being yelled at. You can keep it on as a tab in the background so you can go about your business peacefully—except when you touch your face, of course.
To activate the AI, the website records you not touching your face and then touching your face (with clean hands). Also, this is my cat.
The screen turns red accompanied by a stern “No!” everytime you touch your face.
The site is created by American web designers Mike Bodge, Brian Moore, and Isaac Blankensmith. They equipped the site with the machine-learning system Tensor.js, so it can get better at identifying your face-touching sins.
Read more: Here’s how you can help fight COVID-19 even if you’re not in healthcare
Worried about creepy cyber-FBI people watching you through the webcam? Don’t worry, DNTYF functions locally on your site, so no information is sent over the internet.
Right now, it’s not perfect. I tried it out and got scolded for Madonna Vogue-ing or simply having my hand in front of my face. But it definitely does the trick for me to be hyperaware of my face-touching tendencies. It’s the least I—and all of us—can do to help out with the pandemic.
Screenshot from the Do Not Touch Your Face website
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