I cannot locate the name of this toy or decoration at the moment, but it is a ring of paperdoll like characters that circle like a carousel around a propellor at the center of the ring. The divice is attached to the top of a conventional Edison bulb type lamp; the rising heat from the lamp spins the propellor and the sihouettes, cast shadows around the room.

A modern version of this could be produced using inexpensive new projector technology, mounted on a powered, timered, variable speed lazy susan like device, all connectied to a very basic computer that would supply a variety of ever changing animated human, pet, other images (such as ladders, boards pales and so on that would make it appear construction was going on). These animated images would be cast on the walls and windows of a home or commercial structure.

This device in combination with TV and radio noise, pet and people noises, and recorded sounds of the goings on of the kind that normally occurs in the particular structure. would offer one more reason for a criminal to skip your building; victims of multiple burglaries would understand this well.

The device is particulary suited for frequently unoccupied structures. The sound does the work in the day; the sounds and images work at night.
-- Sunstone, Jan 20 2010

(?) Mission partially accomplished with faketv.com, the burglar deterrent www.faketv.com
Burglars generally avoid houses they think are occupied, because they do not want to get caught. FakeTV makes it look like someone is home watching TV [Sunstone, Mar 09 2013]

Sounds like somebody is home CD http://www.amazon.c...8-4&keywords=faketv
Home Protection Audio CD 24/7 "Safety Sounds" [Sunstone, Mar 15 2013]

What if the would-be burglars (likely former prisoners) began to suspect that the shadows themselves were the real reality?
-- leinypoo13, Jan 20 2010


You mean like: Wouldn't it be neat if that thing Macaulay Culkin's character did in the movie "Home Alone" was a pre-packaged product?

Yup. Sure would.
-- MikeD, Jan 20 2010


I envision an automated Balinese shadow puppet show. Maybe as a coin operated sort of thing for Amish and folks who fear the TV.
-- bungston, Jan 20 2010


The Adventure of the Empty House by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A bust of Holmes is manually turned by Mrs. Hudson, casting a gradually changing silhouette on the window blinds of 221b Baker St.
-- pocmloc, Jan 20 2010


[leinypool13], if I could bun an anno, I would.
-- Germanicus, Jan 21 2010


Something like this, in a car, steamy looking windows, and an oscillating weight.
-- Ling, Jan 21 2010



random, halfbakery