Japanese YouTuber builds smart bulb system that lights up when couples break up

The Christmas season can be especially hard, even for stoic singles.

The period of year-end joy has long since been the bane of singles forced to watch blissful couples around town, doing some holiday shopping hand-in-hand. 

To stave off the blues this year, Japanese YouTuber Marina Fujiwara (@togenkyoo), invented a contraption called the "breakup light".

Its purpose of existence? The LED bulb would light up whenever someone posts "I broke up" on Twitter.

She went on to post her invention on her own Twitter account on Monday (Dec 16), where it has since gone viral.

[embed]https://twitter.com/togenkyoo/status/1206543114510323712[/embed]

Fujiwara explained on her website that she dislikes Christmas and the public displays of affections from couples she has to endure aren't helping at all, as per China Press.

Since she'll be on her own again for Christmas this year, she decided to craft a gift for herself.

Hence the gadget, a device programmed to detect the phrase "I broke up" on Twitter. According to her setup, it appears to be that she assembled the machine using a Philips Hue smart bulb that's triggered to light up when the term is fetched from Twitter — an easy enough configuration done through a custom applet on the If This Then That web service. 

So long as someone tweets the phrase "broke up", the gadget will automatically light up momentarily, heralding yet another heartbroken person in the world. 

The clip has since been viewed over 524,000 times, bringing some hilarious warmth to the bleak days faced by netizens who can relate to Marina. 

Japanese netizens have deemed her ingenious invention to be highly intriguing, while several others wished to get their hands on it and give it a try themselves.

Marina’s other useless inventions include nunchucks that double as thermometers and a machine that repeatedly slaps your face with money. 

For those who have indeed broken up with their partners during the festive season, perhaps they could take comfort in another crazy contraption: a gun that turns tears into icy bullets. 

mabelkhoo@asiaone.com