
Teeth LEDs - ryvita
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/new-japanese-fashion-l-e-d-lights-for-your-teeth/?hpw
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kmfrk
I sometimes wish that people's personalities were printed on their forehead,
so I could stop wasting my time on the obnoxious and stupid ones.

This comes pretty close to fulfilling that wish.

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webwright
Out of curiosity, how do you feel about folks with tattoos?

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javert
Well if it's on their forehead, that's a pretty good sign that there's
something wrong with them. If it's elsewhere, it really depends... for the
most part, no generalization to be made.

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redseven
POOR IMPULSE CONTROL

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DougBTX
Especially if that is the tattoo.

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hugh3
Some random Japanese trends are destined to go mainstream in the west, while
others aren't. This seems to fall firmly into the latter category.

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harisenbon
Calling this a trend is kind of pushing it. ;)

Publicity stunt by a fashion designer/store in Harajuku sounds much better.

If this winds its way down to Nagoya, I think I'm going to need to move to a
different island.

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patio11
Yeah, the NYT runs one "Japan... weird, right?" story every three months,
typically sourced off a single interview with a counterculture aficionado in
Tokyo. Remember, e.g., anti-mugger camouflague dresses to turn you into a Coke
machine?

My theory is that Japanese people are rich enough to count as white and rare
enough in the NYT newsroom to count as Republican, which makes this OK by
their lights. If the published an article on hip hop teeth as a craze sweeping
the nation, they'd lose face with people they actually care about.

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theklub
I'm pretty sure people have been putting glo-sticks in their mouths to
accomplish this very effect for many years. The concept isn't new.

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LogicHoleFlaw
When I was young(er) a friend cut open a glo-stick and gargled it. "Hey, it
says it's non-toxic!"

The inside of his mouth glowed for a week.

Related: Glo-sticks burst in a shower of (hot) glowing liquid when thrown in a
campfire.

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corin_
I found <http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Throwies/> far more interesting
than the teeth lights.

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apitaru
While this particular project seems like a novelty item, I recommend taking a
closer look at Daito, one of the artist-hackers mentioned in the article. I
enjoyed digging a bit deeper into the works on his site.

<http://www.daito.ws/>

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wzdd
I've been subscribed to his youtube channel for a while
(<http://www.youtube.com/user/daito>) and it's very entertaining to see some
of his projects come up, decontextualised: electric stimulation to people's
faces (usually his own), drawing on photosensitive liquids with a laser,
recreating a photograph using a sheet of cardboard and a nailgun.

Given that history I'm inclined to see this more as an interesting piece of
art than a stupid fashion trend.

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tomhenderson
Funny to see this on HN after seeing something very similar at a Ramstein
concert on Friday night. The singer has a cheek piercing which he feeds a wire
through to light up his mouth.

Good photo here: [http://en.affenknecht.com/first-professional-pictures-
from-t...](http://en.affenknecht.com/first-professional-pictures-from-
the-2009-rammstein-tour/)

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wnoise
Body decoration is nearly a human universal -- it's unsurprising that new
technology will be adopted for this, though whether this particular fad will
take root is doubtful.

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javert
Doubtful that it will take root, not _whether_ it will take root. (Seems
pretty clear whether or not it will take root!)

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rubidium
But the upgrade to LED grills would be LED teeth, which always take root.

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jhen095
These would be pretty cool with a few extra features. Say flashing in time
with music or sound as you are speaking. Or wirelessly connected so that they
sink and can act out 'symphonies' of light displays. Great for advertising!

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gojomo
The first demo video does show flashing and colors sensitive to music, and the
second video shows a large groups' lights staying in sync, though the
mechanisms of communication (wireless signals?) aren't clear.

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yummyfajitas
Till Lindemann can pull this off. You can't. Just leave it at that.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU1wLryjuEw>

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fleitz
Can't wait to see these on the playa this year.

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loup-vaillant
Hem, the photos and the second videos are fake. The light sometimes doesn't
match the mouth.

The first video is quite funny, though.

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kujawa
I think JWZ put it best when he said "Dear Japanese people ..."

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raphar
The concept is not worthless: It could be a useful punishment to give these
'glowing teeths' to the avatars of cheating/bad behaviour players in your
favourite online game.

It would have been a success in counter-strike!

