The Burglary Basics:
Make
you home look occupied, and make it difficult to break in.
- The Memphis Police Department
How FakeTV Works |
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When you look at a real TV, you see images on the screen. But when
you look at the light it casts in a room, the light from the screen
melds to a uniform glow that changes with the changing images on the
television. FakeTV uses a built-in computer to control super-bright LEDs to
produce light of varying intensity and color that light up a room
just like a real television does. The light effects of real
television programming --scene changes, camera pans, fades, flicks,
swells, on-screen motion, and more, are all faithfully simulated by
FakeTV. Just like a real TV, FakeTV fills a room with color changes,
both subtle and dramatic, in thousands of possible shades. Like real
television programming, FakeTV is constantly shifting among more and
less dynamic periods, more vivid and more monochromatic, and
brighter and darker scenes. FakeTV is completely unpredictable, and
it never repeats.
The effect is uncanny. From outside the home, FakeTV is essentially
indistinguishable from a real television. Test subjects were not
able to tell if it was FakeTV or the real thing, even when they knew
it had to be one or the other. "I think that was a news program, but
now a bunch of commercials just came on. It must be the real TV" No,
that was FakeTV, the whole time! And an operating television sends
the clear message to prowlers: "This home is occupied. Try somewhere
else."
It's partly about Light
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How does something the size of a coffee cup produce as much light as a television set many times its size? Recent advancements in LED technology have brought about "Super Bright LED's" many that are more than ten times as bright as the "plain old LED's" we are all familiar with. FakeTV packs a dozen of these technological marvels into a package that includes the computer and some well-designed optics. Super Bright LED's are very expensive, but we have a special partnership with Kodenshi, allowing us to offer FakeTV at a remarkably affordable price. And the FakeTV diffuser lens is a bit of science (optics is what we do here!) that borders on art, making the FakeTV unit very attractive. |
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And Partly About Random
FakeTV is not just a flickering light or flasher! And neither is it just a "random light source." Yes, there are random number generators in the computer in FakeTV, and FakeTV never, ever, repeats. Real TV is not random- any more than music is random sounds. The light from TV is highly characteristic. Discovering what makes the light from a TV look like, well, the light from a TV, was the key to making FakeTV so realistic.
But mostly about a really good counterfeit!
To develop FakeTV, we took data using real televisions of different types and makes. We characterized TV programs, analyzing the light output for intensity and color variation. We generated a lot of computer files of television data. Then, we came up with mathematical formulas that behaved just the same way. We programmed these into FakeTV's computer, and ran the same tests. We tested these in the field, as well, and verified that our test subjects simply could not tell the difference between FakeTV and the real thing.
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We had to develop special test equipment to analyze the light and color from TV as well as FakeTV. Our professional optical lab instruments were not sensitive enough. |
Okay, we got a bit compulsive with this. Surely, no burglar has ever studied the light intensity output of a television, or measured the degree of color variation! But we human beings are remarkably good at discerning patterns and even subtle differences. We did not to take the chance that a prowler might see the light from our television simulator and think "something is not right, there", even if he could not identify it. We kept at it until we could see, and measure, no differences. This is because an obvious simulation runs the risk of announcing the prowlers that the home is, in fact, unoccupied. We did not want to take that chance!
We didn't stop with just a great imitation of TV light, either. The FakeTV unit is extremely usable. The light sensor works very well, so in most applications all you need to do is plug it in, set the timer switch appropriately, and let it mislead burglars.
Improve Peace of Mind for Your Vacation
The FakeTV® brand of television light simulator is custom manufactured in Malaysia by Xenso Sdn. Bhd.
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