Smart device jolts over-spenders with electric shock
20 May 2016
Technology company Intelligent Environments has launched a bank account that detects overspending.
The company then either alerts the users by sending them an electric shock, or automatically turns their heating down to save the money.
Users set a self-imposed spending limit, and when they approach it, they get a warning notification on their phone. If the limit is exceeded the technology delivers an electric shock to users' wrist through a wearable smart wristband.
Coventry and Warwickshire customers who would rather not have an electric shock could instead choose to link their account to another device - such as Google's Nest thermostat.
If they do, when their account balance drops below their self-imposed spending limit the bank would automatically turn the Nest thermostat down to a lower temperature, which is set by the customer.
David Webber, managing director of Intelligent Environments, said, ''With cashless payments like contactless, direct debits, and Apple Pay, it's unsurprising we lose track of spending, so we decided to solve this by enabling smart devices to manage our overspending for us, coventrytelegraph.netreported.
"This means customers can now get complete control and oversight of their finances without having to lift a finger.
The device uses the principles of Pavlovian Conditioning to help people break bad habits.
The idea behind the invention was that the two milliampere shock would condition wearers to develop and stick to good habits by associating the bad overspending habits with the uncomfortable yet effective shock.
However, professor Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert from Surrey University, told the BBC that with more number of connections made between devices, the risk of a security weakness also increased.
"Having a convoluted interaction between systems is almost inevitably going to lead to unintended security flaws," he said.
"It is important to factor in the security implications of such wearable devices," Liviu Itoafa, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab , the Daily Mil reported online.
