“Man on the Curtain” is an ingenious system that uses your smartphone to project full-motion silhouettes of men on window curtains to deter criminals targeting women who live by themselves.

Tokyo may be one of the safest cities in the world, but crimes do sometimes occur and women who live alone are among the most targeted victims. Since the majority of Japanese people don’t like the idea of a roommate, apartment management company Leo Palace 21 has developed a “crime prevention projector kit” that gives would-be criminals stalking the apartments of female tenants the impression that they are not alone.

Photo: Leo Palace 21

Aptly named “Man on the Curtain” the system consists of a projector that connects to your smartphone to throw a life-like silhouette of a man on the window curtains. The idea is that when someone looks at your apartment window from the outside, they see this manly silhouette and are fooled into thinking that there is actually a man living there as well. This should, in theory deter criminals from attempting to assault young women living by themselves.

In case you’re wondering what makes Man on the Curtain better than a simple cardboard cutout or a mannequin, the answer is “full motion”. The device doesn’t just project a static silhouette of a man, but a naturally moving one that actually looks very realistic.

Photo: Leo Palace 21

The ingenious system currently features 12 silhouette options which were actually created using real actors performing various routines. Users can choose from a guy lifting weights in front of the window, another practicing martial arts or shadowboxing, and even one enthusiastically playing guitar. And since an insistent criminal may actually stick around for a while, after seeing the manly shadow, every one of the 12 options is actually a 30-minute long routine featuring various natural motions. Once one routine ends, it moves to another, which means Man on the Curtain offer six hours of “man time” before any of the footage has to be repeated.

Man on the Curtain may fail to convince everyone, especially if used on the ground floor of a building, during the summer, when the windows are open, especially due to the lack of sound, but that’s something that can easily be added for an even more convincing effect.

Leo Palace 21 doesn’t have any plans to make Man on the Curtain commercially available in the near future, but it is give away 5 prototypes to anyone who fills out this application form. I assume you have to be based in Japan, though, but who knows, if this thing gets enough attention, we may actually see it available for purchase soon.

via SoraNews24