(CNN) The internet is awash with suggestions for keeping yourself occupied at home during the coronavirus outbreak, but one Australian scientist ended up in the hospital thanks to his choice of entertainment.

With medical authorities around the world advising people to stop touching their faces, to help slow the spread of the virus, Melbourne-based Daniel Reardon thought he would try to make a sensor that could tell if your hands were near your face, he told CNN.

An astrophysicist by trade, Reardon, 27, had some electronic parts lying around and decided to try his hand at a spot of engineering.

Medical staff wrote a lengthy description of Reardon's predicament.

"I was just feeling a bit bored when it came up," he said, admitting that his invention had the opposite effect to the one he intended: Instead of making a noise when his hands were close to his face, it buzzed incessantly until he moved them to his face.

"I had a laugh and gave up temporarily," he added. "Then I started mindlessly placing the magnets on my face. First my ear lobes, then my nostrils -- like a magnetic piercing."

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