Hey, I invented that!
September 27, 2009 Post a Comment Monday, September 28th, 2009
It started with an email from Ian in Sydney, Australia. He told me about a device he bought that – from the outside of your house – it makes it look like the family is watching TV. Here’s part of his email: It's a led light that imitates the flashing, intensity and colour changing of a TV as seen indirectly through a window. At first I was suspicious this was a scam or something, but shelled out for one. It is smaller than the picture makes out but is bright enough to do as described. Ian, Sydney Australia.
The gizmo is called FakeTV and yes, it’s designed to make it look like someone is home watching television! The company says the effects of scene changes, fades, swells, flicks, on-screen motion, and color changes and more are faithfully reproduced, and look just like they came from a real TV. The computer controlled, super-bright multi-color LED light output equivalent to a typical 27" HDTV LCD television. And they point something you may not know: Most digital televisions do not work with timers-- they turn on with push buttons. So that means you can’t use your own TV to go on & off when you’re not home. What I did years ago was put a bunch of flashing Christmas light on some tin foil. It was to decorate a fireplace in the summer, but one night I left it on when I was out. When I came home it looked like someone was inside watching TV! The commercial version is called FakeTV. It can be set to DUSK +4 HRS or DUSK +7 HRS or just plain ON. Just place it in a room so that you can see the light from the FakeTV from outside, but you cannot see the FakeTV unit itself. Plug into the wall using the included adapter. The built in light sensor will turn FakeTV on at dusk, and the unit turns off after a switch selectable 4 or 7 hours. The company could be right when they say: Burglars will almost always circle a home once before entering. They are looking for the easiest way in, and looking for signs of life. FakeTV gives them just those signs! Few burglars will enter a home that they think is occupied. There’s a video of the product at the company website. It sells for $39.99, but do a web search. Sometimes other sources like Home Shopping Network sell it for $10 less!
Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw926
Reader Comments