Commentary
Electric Shock Sent Through Wearable When Consumer Overspends
- by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, May 20, 2016
Someone had to come up with this.
At first I thought this latest IoT innovation was a joke since it sounded like something out of the Onion.
But there is an official announcement of it and quite a bit of media coverage, so here it is. Again, if true.
A new Internet of Things banking platform was just launched by Intelligent Environments.
So far, no great shakes.
And then it gets a bit more interesting.
The idea behind the platform is that smart devices can be connected to a bank account.
So when the banking platform identifies overspending, a Nest thermostat connected to the account automatically turns down the heat to reduce heating bills to save the person money.
To be fair, the consumer did get the advance choice on how far to drop the temperature when setting up their account.
The British tech firm that created the banking platform is targeting millennials it deems too scared to check their bank account.
But besides turning down the heat, there’s more.
The company has a wearable device that also can be connected to the bank account.
When the IoT bank detects overspending, the wearable gives the user an electric shock.
The idea here is to retrain the consumer to limit overspending by electric shock.
A customer logs into their account to connect their wearable device and set a spending limit.
When they near their limit, they get a smartphone notification.
When they go over it, they get a zap to the wrist.
The device is appropriately called Pavlock.
So far, no bank has yet signed up for the consumer-shocking-banking service.
Gee.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the AI & IoT Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily Connected Thinking column. He is a NY Times Business bestselling author and his latest book is “Digital Transformation 3.0” (The New Business-to-Consumer Connections of The Internet of Things.) He is CEO of Net Future Institute and a frequent keynote speaker internationally. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck@MediaPost.com.
The just need to invert the model so that when the consumer is underspending, he/she receives a gentle, pleasurable, purring sensation through the device urging him/her to step up consumption.
Now there's a thought, Steve.
It's Milgram on a budget!
Steve: But wouldn't that pleasant sensation just encourage the consumer to spend even less, to the point where they begin giving their stuff away, just to continue the good vibes, until they're living on the street?
Oh, wait. They already have drugs to do that.
The article itself describes something that, yet again, is redundant. If you marry correctly, the "jolt when you over-consume" is living under your roof already. Every time I buy yet another camera or lens, the jolt I get when my wife hears the cost actually causes the lights in the entire neighborhood to dim briefly.
... "They ... just ... burned ... The Kid." (fade out with harmonica quietly playing in the cellblock)
Or at least hopefully with less electricity, David.
Shocked, I tell you. Shocked. The shakes is the new black.