The image is virtually a projected shadow but a Japanese apartment management company hopes it will help protect women living on their own against forceful intrusions, as well as potential burglaries.
The company’s brainchild labelled "Man on the Curtain" uses a smartphone connected to a projector to throw a distinct shadow of a man turning round and sending hooks and jabs onto a curtain. There is, however, a plethora of options to choose from: one can pick a karate fighter beating his opponent cold, a boxer or even a baseball player wielding a baseball bat.
To obfuscate passers-by prying through the windows the projection may be also programmed to do some routine things like vacuum-clean the flat or, alternatively, chill out to guitar sounds.
Leopalace21 Corp. developed the security system, according to the firm’s manager, notably for apartments where women live alone. However, queries from the public shortly followed prompting the firm to think about going to the global market.
READ MORE: Woman Raped by US Marine: Such Crimes Existed for Decades, but Not in Media
However innovative this may seem, there are tangible fears that rogues might at some point find out that the "man behind the curtain" who spends his whole time shadow boxing or permanently doing other activities, actually hints at the fact that the apartment owner lives alone and is presumably a woman.