New Realism in Occupancy Simulation

A light on a timer is a great idea, and we still recommend that you use one. It can be seen from the street, and gives a good first impression. But timers are commonplace, and burglars know this, so a timer is not enough. Worse, lights are static. But the light from a television is something entirely different. It is constantly changing, and gives the impression of "alive." FakeTV recreates that light, and recreates that impression.

So why not just put a television on a timer? It will not work! Modern televisions turn on with push-buttons, so they will not turn on from an external timer.

So why not just leave a television on whenever you are away? Well, aside from consuming a lot of power needlessly, televisions get gradually dimmer with time. Does it make sense to use up the life of an expensive TV when nobody is watching it?

The Solution is FakeTV

Using FakeTV could not be simpler. Place FakeTV where it will light up a room, but you cannot see the FakeTV unit itself. A second floor room is ideal, but a first floor room with translucent shades or blinds works fine, too. Then, each evening at dusk FakeTV's built-in light sensor will turn the unit on. FakeTV turns off automatically after a switch-selectable time.

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.

Quality in Every Detail

FakeTV is extraordinarily simple to use and well thought-out. The highest quality components are assembled to produce a quality product that you will enjoy for years to come. Our core business as a company is automotive sensors and controls-- we are familiar with needing to produce high reliability at a low cost.

FakeTV becomes part of your home, and we have designed it as such. Yes, it is highly functional, but it is also attractive. The opalescent diffuser lens gives a pretty glow, and the optical illusion formed by the LEDs on the screen is frankly fascinating to watch. (Although we discourage you from doing so-- it is never healthy to look at any bright light source for an extended period of time.)

Neither FakeTV nor even an elaborate and expensive occupation simulation system (such things exist!) can guarantee you will not have a break in. But, you can make your home look occupied, and thus improve your odds, for a remarkably modest price, and with no hassle at all.

How FakeTV Works

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

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.

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 is plug it in, set the timer switch appropriately, and let it mislead burglars.

Make FakeTV part of your home security solution!