A GLASGOW University graduate has developed a device which could curb the spread of coronavirus.

Entrepreneur Grant Gillon has launched a wristband called The Nudge, which vibrates when it detects the wearer is about to touch their face.

Touching one’s face is understood to be a transmission route for Covid-19 and a 2015 study from Australia found that on average, people touch their face 23 times an hour.

Luisa Zettnig, of the Children’s Hospital of Zurich, was spurred on to develop the device from her worries her 88 year old grandmother and her father who is undergoing chemotherapy for a brain tumour.

Mr Gillon said: “Nudge was born out of worries for our own at-risk relatives.

“They were being advised to avoid touching their faces, but how? We know that it’s a habit first formed in the womb, so it’s not exactly an easy one to break.

“We looked at what out there was to help and found nothing that people could just ‘pull out the box’ and start using to help straight away, particularly in the UK where there was nothing available at all.”

The vibrations are based on the “nudge theory”, which gives the device its name and holds that people's behaviour can be altered by small reminders linked to actions. Nudge’s developers hope that it will “nudge” people and make them less likely to touch their faces.

Research has shown that making people aware they are doing so, makes them less likely to touch their face.