First it was holographic superstars and virtual girlfriends. Now the forward-thinking, tech-savvy Japanese are at it again with LED-powered smiles. According to Motoi Ishibashi, one of the designers (along with Daito Manabe) of this odd new accessory, the duo was inspired by James Powderly’s LED Throwies and wanted to recreate the look in the mouth. Ishibashi and Manabe utilized Flo, an Arduino compatible board, to build the device and implemented an Xbee to control the smile wirelessly (up to 300 ft outdoors).Although the cord attaching the smile to the Flo board kind of reminds us of orthodontic headgear, it doesn’t matter so much when lit up at night. The technology just got picked up for use in a commercial promoting the Laforet Grand Bazar winter sale in Harajuku, and we think it’ll only be a matter of time before the street-wise Japanese youth are flaunting the accessory as part of their cosplay getups.