Here's just the attire for a miserable workday morning; a hat that makes you smile - literally.

The Happiness Hat detects if you're smiling and provides 'pain feedback' if you're not.

So, frowning creates intense pain but a full smile leaves you pain free.

LA-based designer Lauren McCarthy describes her invention as a "wearable conditioning device".

Beneath the cheerful knitted woollen hat exterior, the ominous-sounding 'pain feedback' is applied thanks to metal spike if you are in the wrong mood.

Lauren explains: "An enclosed bend sensor attaches to the cheek and measures smile size, a servo motor moves a metal spike into the head inversely proportional to the degree of smile.

"Through repeated use of this conditioning device you can train your brain to smile all the time."

Despite appearing to be a torture device dressed up as a tea cosy, Lauren believes the Happiness Hat could make us all more cheerful.

She says: "A smile is a simple action that has the power to make you and everyone around you feel better. Just using the muscles to smile can make you feel happier.

"Seeing someone else smiling triggers mirror neurons in your own brain, causing you to unconsciously smile yourself."

MUST CREDIT PICTURES BY
Lauren McCarthy/Rex Features
Stroy: Dean Murray