05.19.2008 — For many years, integrators offering residential alarm systems had to contend with prospects who "didn’t need an alarm system” because they had “a dog” or “a gun.”

Now you can add “fake TV” to that list of objections.

The FakeTV simulates the flickering glow of someone watching TV in the window of your home, misleading burglars into believing someone is home.

A built-in computer controls LEDs to produce light of varying intensity and color that lights 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 simulated by a FakeTV.

This product got me thinking about other “fake” deterrents instead of an alarm system.

1. Of course, there is the standard light timer that can be left on particular lamps in the home. Taking that to the next level, how about the old shadow trick I once saw in a Hawaii-Five-O episode … it was a well-positioned light shining on the head of a mannequin, casting a shadow on the curtains.

2. The “Beware of Dog” sign is a good deterrent. You can take that to next level by creating a CD or cassette tape recording of a dog barking. You might even be able to use the one with dogs barking “Jingle Bells.”

3. The “This house protected by Smith & Wesson” sign was popular for many years or even the handy Bedside Shotgun Rack.

FakeTV was conceived by author and inventor Blaine Readler.

"My wife and I were going out for the evening, and I decided to leave the TV on so that it looked like somebody was still at home," he says.

"I commented that it was a shame to waste all that electricity, when the burglars couldn't even see the picture itself, just the reflection off the wall.

"That evening, my mind kept coming back to this. There had to be a cheap way to simulate a television as seen from outside."

Readler teamed with Opto-Electronic Design, Inc. to study the flickering glow in detail, gathering data about the exact nature of the intensity and color variations emanating from a real television.

News programs, for example, are far more static than dramas, and commercials more dynamic. A sequence of outdoor water scenes may have a bluish cast, a game show set might be reddish, while an animated sequence might explode with color.

Engineers wrote computer programs to simulate all of these effects. Test subjects were unable to tell the difference between the prototype television simulator and the real thing.

FakeTV has been available through several Internet resellers since April and carries a suggested retail price of $49.