Aiming to assist people who suffer from body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRB) such as hair pulling (trichotillomania), chronic nail biting (onychophagia), and skin picking (dermatillomania), HabitAware created Keen, a smart bracelet that learns a wearer’s behavior and subtlety vibrates to interrupt BFRB-related patterns. With the new research grant, the company will test new sensor technology that will be able to more accurately identify BFRB activity.
“This project has the potential to be a game-changing innovation for those suffering from these under-addressed disorders,” Dr. John Pritchard, HabitAware’s Lead Hardware Engineer and research grant Principal Investigator (PI), said in the post. “HabitAware is proud to support the BFRB community and excited to embark on this work.”