Imagine if someone tracked you not only every time you entered, but also watched whether you washed your hands, and whether you used soap. Hygiene Guard is an electronic device used by employers to monitor workers in the restroom and track and modify their hygienic behavior.
Workers wear small badges that blink when they pick up a signal from a sensor in the bathroom.
The sensor does not stop blinking until the employee pumps the soap dispenser three times and runs the water for 15 seconds. Those who ignore the blinking are recorded. This is exactly the type of device that researchers in the Persuasive Technology Laboratory at Stanford University are researching. The group is studying and designing interactive persuasive technologies that motivate and influence users to change their behavior. They call the new field captology, and so far Stanford is the only university known to be studying it.