Hands Off
Stop nail biting and other bfrbs with AI
174 followers
Stop nail biting and other bfrbs with AI
174 followers
Hands Off is a desktop app that intercepts nail biting, skin picking, and other BFRBs in real time. It runs locally on your device, pops up when your hands get near your face, and gradually retrains your brain. All without sending data to the cloud.
Hands Off
Hi all!
I've been biting my nails for over 22 years, and I've tried pretty much everything you can think of. From bitter nail polish, to those mental tricks that work for about a day before you forget all about them. Nothing stuck.
Here's what I finally realized about nail biting: it's not really about willpower. I could spend hours promising myself I wouldn't do it, only to see my hands full of scabs either way. The real issue wasn't that I didn't want to stop, it's that I didn’t notice I was even biting/picking in the first place.
That's when it clicked for me. I didn't need more willpower, I needed someone to tap me on the shoulder the exact moment my hand started moving toward my mouth. Since hiring a person to follow me around wasn't exactly practical, I decided to build an app to do it instead.
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@lennert_soffers Wow, tackling this with AI is such a unique use case. Did it help you to get rid of this habit when you are not at your laptop?
Hands Off
@vladimir_lugovsky It did actually! After using the app for some time, I still get that little “reminder feeling” that I shouldn’t do it, even when my laptop’s not around:)
Great question by the way!
I’ve been pulling my own hair for 10+ year, and the only person who ever stops me was my mom when she catches me doing this. Never thought there could be such a clever and useful tool for this bad habit, really awesome!
Hands Off
@celia_xu I can totally relate, I'm the same with nail biting. Really hope the app helps like it did for me!
I've struggled with skin picking for 10+ years, so I'm really fascinated with the idea of using AI to combat it. Unfortunately my main PC doesn't have a webcam, but I am on my phone a lot. Is there any intention of an Android solution in the future?
Hands Off
@teagandoeswords Thanks Teagan! Yes, there are plans to develop a mobile version of Hands Off too! Firstly we will focus on desktop app, to gather some feedback about the product. A mobile app is the ideal next step. Thanks for your suggestion :)
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These apps for health are the best. To be honest, I haven't seen something such useful lately and I am glad that more makers started focusing on wellness. Wishing you good luck! :)
Hands Off
@busmark_w_nika Thank you so much Nika! Means more than you know :)
Triforce Todos
Congrats on the launch, Lennert! I have a question: how does the app detect the hand movement?
Hands Off
@abod_rehman Thanks so much! Hands Off uses your computer’s webcam together with on-device AI models to process the video in real time. The AI tracks your hands and face to detect when your hand moves toward your mouth.
That's interesting. Can it help us get rid of bad habits like picking our noses and pulling our hair? Hahaha
Hands Off
@m050970905 Thank you! Yes it can, Hands Off can detect the following habits:
Nail biting
Eyebrow hair pulling
Eyelash hair pulling
Nose picking
Ear picking
Skin picking (in the face and around the nails)
You can select one of these in the setting, or detect all of them together :)
@lennert_soffers, thank you so much for this application. I have 2 annoying habits: scratching my face and back of my head. It seems like the app is capable for detecting the former, but completely ignores me doing the later. Is there any chance you can add the detection of me scratching the back of my head?