Want your child to turn that frown upside down? By any means necessary? This feels like it belongs on Arrested Development, alongside the injury-inducing cornballer, but amazingly enough it's a real thing. And there's only a "slight twitch side effect!" Hooray for science!
This new invention just hooks on your child’s ears like glasses while another portion fits snuggly under the chin. Ok so what is the twist? How about electro shock treatment? Yes the portion under the chin sends a constant pulse of electricity through your child’s cheeks.
Set the electro smile unit on high and snap that smile right into place, no more worries about grandma feeling the kids are not happy to see her. The sudden jolt of electricity in the jaw muscles forces the child to smile with complete body excitement giving grandma the appearance the kids have really missed her.
http://www.newsweird.com/2011012209/news/unusual-products/japanese-inventor-creates-an-ingenious-way-to-make-your-kids-smile-3583
1) This is NOT a device that's supposed to help children smile but help them CHEW FOOD properly (the display serves as a "bite counter").
It doesn't produce electric shocks.
2)
The device is called Kami Kami sensor and is marketed by Tokyo-based Nitto Kagaku as one of their medical devices (and only in Japan).
The screenshot above shows the real product, but the text in English is FAKE, to sensationalize the totally harmless product: Nitto Kagaku doesn't export the sensor to other markets.
3)
This news item is in fact from 2008. I reported about this first in English (http://bit.ly/rLEqG), before it got picked up by Gizmodo and a slew of other blogs.
noun
a person who deliberately spoils the enjoyment of others through resentful or overly sober behavior.
However, the real deal Bite counter is just about as dumb as the smile zapper.
On a side note, snuggly =/= snugly.
The captions on the picture do kind of reveal the joke, but it's not completely obvious. It gets a little more credence each time someone on a blog reposts it as an actual device. This is why the internet is becoming a den of misinformation. Nowhere in the post itself does it hint at the true nature of this product.
That's scary.