新型健康神器換個思路幫你改掉壞毛病大綱

Fitness trackers–the Bluetooth-enabled bracelets and wearable devices that monitor things like a person’s heart rate, steps taken and calories burned–had a moment last year. Then everyone realized that knowing how many steps they’d taken each day wasn’t all that helpful. What do you do with that information? Reports surfaced that half of fitness tracking devices had become inactive; industry experts suggest that number is closer to 85%.

健康追蹤器（也就是基於藍牙技術的腕帶和可穿戴設備，能監測人們的心率、行走步數和消耗的卡路里）去年着實熱鬧了一陣。然後所有人都意識到，光知道自己每天走了多少步其實沒什麼用。您會拿這些信息做什麼用呢？一些研究報告發現，這類設備有半數最終都閒置了起來；業內專家則認爲這個數字要接近85%。

The fitness tracker moment has passed. The next wave of connected devices is taking a different approach: Instead of incentivizing users to exercise or sleep or eat healthy, and rewarding them for it with virtual badges and digital high-fives, this new class of devices use shame, guilt, and in one case, a physical shock, to keep their owners in line.

健康追蹤設備可謂大勢己去。下一波互聯設備則採取了全新的互動方式：它們不再鼓勵用戶去鍛鍊，也不是鼓勵他們保持飲食和睡眠健康，同時用什麼虛擬獎牌和數字化擊掌致意來獎勵他們；相反，這些全新設備用羞恥感、負罪感，以及某種情況下的物理震動來讓用戶守規矩。

Where first-generation fitness trackers offered the carrot, the latest class is offering the stick. Soon everything you own, from your chair, to your lighter, to your fork or belt, will be able to scold you.

如果說第一代健康追蹤設備奉上的是胡蘿蔔，那最新一代設備揮舞的就是大棒了。很快，你所擁有的一切東西，從板凳到打火機，從叉子到皮帶，都能把你罵上一頓。

Take Quitbit. It’s a “smart lighter,” which measures how much its owner smokes, in hopes that that information will motivate them to cut back on the habit. Its designers created the device after they tried to track their own smoking with Google Docs and iPhone notes. They realized they weren’t always proud of how much they smoked, and therefore weren’t motivated to continue recording the behavior. So they built a lighter that records the data for them. In addition to tracking the data, which founders Takuji Nakano and Ata Ghofrani say is proven to help smokers decrease their smoking, Quitbit can be programmed to only work a certain number of times each day. They’re careful not to push the guilt factor, since it takes time for smokers to come around to the idea of quitting. “We have to be really gentle with it and will continually ease them into it by making them more cognitive about how much they’re smoking,” Nakano says. “We want to empower them to just try to quit.” The Quitbit crossed its funding goal on Kickstarter and will be available for purchase later this year.

比如Quitbit，這是個“智能打火機”，它能測出用戶抽了多少煙。它的設計意圖是希望這類信息能讓用戶少抽點菸。它的設計師是在用“谷歌醫生”（Google Docs）和iPhone notes追蹤自己的抽菸情況後纔有了設計它的念頭。他們知道自己並不總會因爲自己抽了多少煙而感到自豪，因此也不會很有動力地記錄這種行爲。所以他們纔會打造這麼一款打火機來記錄抽菸數據。中野卓二和阿塔o高夫拉尼這兩位創始人表示，這款設備確實能幫吸菸者少抽菸。除此之外，Quitbit還能設定每天有效工作的次數。他們很注意不要激發吸菸者的負罪感，因爲吸菸者需要一定的時間來認識到戒菸的必要性。中野說：“我們不得不小心行事，通過讓吸菸者逐步意識到自己的吸菸量，持續地推動他們慢慢戒菸。我們希望能讓他們確實有動力試着戒菸。”Quitbit已在衆籌網站Kickstarter上公佈了募資目標，今年晚些時候就能上市銷售。

For drinkers, there are a myriad of iPhone breathalyzer tools that not only tell users how intoxicated they are and how long until they’ll be sober, but map out alcohol intake over time in a handy chart. The quantified drinker can choose from breathalyzer devices from BACTrack (which I reviewed last year),Breathometer, or Alcohoot.

喝酒的人們則可以選用各種iPhone上的酒精測試工具。它們不僅能告訴用戶他們到底醉到了什麼程度，還需要多久才能清醒，還能通過一個簡明的表格顯示出一段時間以來的酒精攝入量。喜歡定量的飲酒者可以選擇的工具有BACTrack（去年我評測過），Breathometer或Alcohoot。

For speed-eaters, there’s Hapifork, an electronic fork that vibrates when its user eats too fast. The idea is that eating more slowly helps users consume less food, chewing more frequently to aid digestion and decrease gastric reflux. Naturally, there’s an app to go with it, tracking one’s eating speeds over time.

吃得太快的人可以使用Hapifork。這是一款電子叉子，用戶如果吃得太快，它就會開始震動。它的設計理念是，吃得慢一些可以讓用戶吃得少些，咀嚼更充分以幫助消化，同時減少腸胃返流。它自然也自帶了一款應用，可以監測用戶一段時間內的飲食速度。

For fixing bad posture, there’s the LumoBack, a connected belt that vibrates any time its wearer slouches. A sensor can be set to pulse until the wearer has adjusted into a “good posture.” A related smartphone app allows users to “watch” their posture, assigning a score for how straight one is sitting or standing. In addition, the LumoBack tracks time spent standing, sitting, and sleeping.

如果要糾正不良體態，可以用LumoBack，每當用戶弓腰塌背時，這條聯網的帶子就會震動。帶子上的一個傳感器會不斷跳動，直到用戶調整到“正確姿勢”爲止。一個相關的智能手機應用可以讓用戶“看到”自己的體態，並給自己坐得或站得有多直打分。此外，它還能監測我們站立、端坐及睡覺各花了多少時間。

For those uncomfortable wearing a vibrating belt, there’s Darma, the “smart cushion.” This device offers vibrating reminders to stand up (sitting kills, remember?) and to alert users to correct their bad posture. The company touts the cushion’s non-intrusiveness, since it is not stuck on your body.

有些人不喜歡戴着震動帶，他們可以用Darma，所謂的“智能靠墊”。這個設備能發出震動提示，讓用戶站起來（記得嗎？坐着很難受），同時警告用戶糾正自己的糟糕體態。生產這款設備的公司大談這個“靠墊”是如何不煩人，因爲它不需要掛在身體上。

But the most punishing device, not yet available in the market, is the Pavlok, its name a nod to the father of classical conditioning research. Pavlok was created by Maneesh Sethi, a blogger who became Internet-famous when he hired a woman to slap him every time he mindlessly opened Facebook. The Pavlok bracelet, which has been beta testing several hundred users, grew out of that experiment. (The company will launch a crowdfunding campaign later this year, Sethi says.)

而最具懲罰性、目前還沒有上市的一款設備叫Pavlok，這個名字是爲了紀念經典條件反射理論研究之父的。它的發明者是梅尼西o塞西，這是一位在網上暴得大名的博主。之所以出名，是因爲他曾經僱了一位女性，只要看到他不當心打開了Facebook就扇他一巴掌。Pavlok腕帶就是從這種試驗中打造出來的，而且正在幾百位用戶中進行測試（塞西稱，公司今年晚些時候會爲此發佈一個衆籌計劃）。

Users can program the bracelet to change a variety of habits, from opening fewer tabs in their web browser, to meditating every day. Pavlok users assign themselves a goal and choose a “referee,” who gets a text message to check in every day at 7 p.m. If the user hasn’t completed their goal, they get a shock through the bracelet and charged money through the app. If they complete their goal, they get rewards like lottery tickets or money. Sethi says the bracelet starts with punishment for bad behavior, and moves to positive feedback for good behavior over time. “The negative gets you started and the positive keeps the habit going,” he says. “As you start to succeed, you can take away the negative reinforcement and give positive reinforcement. And then the habit comes more automatic and you don’t need it at all.”

用戶可以通過設定自己的腕帶來改變很多習慣，既可以在瀏覽器裏少開幾個標籤，也可以學會每天冥想。Pavlok的用戶可以給自己設定一個目標，同時選擇一位“仲裁者”。這位仲裁會收到一條短信，每天晚上七點對該用戶進行檢查。如果這名用戶沒有完成目標，腕帶就會傳給他們一陣震動，同時還會被從應用里扣錢。如果他們完成了目標，就能獲得彩票或現金之類的獎勵。塞西表示，這種腕帶從懲戒壞習慣開始，隨着時間推移開始逐漸獎勵好行爲。他說：“負面回饋先讓你開始用上它，慢慢地正面獎勵幫助你養成好習慣。當你開始養成好習慣時，就可以取消懲戒措施，代之以正面的獎勵。隨後，當這個習慣逐漸變得自然而然後，你就不再需要它了。”

This wave of punishing devices may end up with same high abandonment rates as fitness trackers. But in the case of breaking bad habits, abandonment doesn’t mean failure–it could mean users have successfully broken their bad habits and no longer need a device to judge them.

這一波懲罰神器的浪潮可能最終也會像健康追蹤器一樣以被丟在一邊收場。但如果能借此改掉壞習慣，哪怕丟了也不代表失敗——這反而說明用戶成功改掉了壞習慣，再也不需要這麼個玩意兒來看着自己了。