Wearable tracker helps users quit bad habits with electric shocks

Pavlok is a new wearable device that delivers electric shocks to its wearer. (Pavlok)

For some, self-discipline is synonymous with punishment, and for those people, there is Pavlok, a new wearable device that delivers electric shocks to its wearer. The tracker joins a host of other wearables that aim to correct unwanted behaviors, if a bit more gently.

It began when blogger Maneesh Sethi hired a woman to slap him every time he consulted Facebook.

According to Sethi, who had advertised the position on Craigslist, his productivity quadrupled when the woman began her job, which paid eight dollars an hour.

From there he gained internet notoriety, which he's now using to market the ensuing wearable fitness tracker he conceived.

It's called Pavlok and it delivers an electric shock each time the user falls off his diet or exercise program or fails to wake up on time.

Sethi named the app in honor of the Russian physiologist Pavlov, who trained a dog to salivate upon external stimulation in a series of experiments that included the use of electric shock, although they are best known for the use of a bell tone.

Sethi's method seems to be working for him for he claims to have lost 30 pounds using his wearable shocker.

Whether the device will have a similar effect on the mass market has yet to be seen although a woman has dared to admit her responsiveness to the device in a testimony that includes her photo on the Pavlok website.

The product is available for pre-order for $249.99.

Other punishing devices on the market are less extreme, such as LumoLift, whose objective is to improve posture by vibrating when the user slouches.

The device ships in a few days and will be available for $79 at launch, climbing to $99 after July 28.

QuitBit is a smoking cessation device that seeks to correct behavior and circumvent possibilities cheating.

Aware of the shame smokers feel upon giving in to cravings, and their likely unwillingness to admit it in their daily log, QuitBit is a smart lighter that records how often it is used.

QuitBit is available for pre-order for $99 with shipment expected in December 2014.

And for those looking to cut a few extra pounds without the threat of an electric shock, HapiFork is an electronic fork intended to combat speed-eating by vibrating when the user eats too fast.

It is currently available for purchase for $99.