Improving Home Security with your TV

When buglers are deciding what house to rob, one of the critical factors is, "is the owner home?"  When you go on vacation, it is always important to have your neighbors pick up the mail and the newspapers so things do not pile up in front of your house.  People also have lights on timers that turn on at night to make the house lived in.  Unfortunately, setting the lights on timers can be difficult and you have to decide which lights to turn
on.  A bright light only in the front room will still make the house look empty.

TV Light coming from a window

Source: http://faketv.com/

There is one exception to this rule and that is having a single TV on in a room.  Many times when you drive by a house, the entire house will be dark except for the TV light coming from a window.  This usually means someone is watching TV before bedtime.  If a burglar sees the TV light, they will typically move on to the next house.  So how can you take advantage of this fact?

Here is how it would work.  TV manufactures should add a option to the menu that allows the TV to turn on and off for a certain time period each day.  The channel could periodically change. The volume would be set at a level that is a little louder than normal viewing.  If you have dish network or comcast, just leave the reciver box on for your vacation.

When a burgler drives by your home, they would see the lights flickering from the TV and hear the sound and think that someone is home and move on to the next house.  Of course this would not work if your TV is in the front room visible from the street.  It would work better if the TV were in a back room where no one can see who is watching the TV.

By adding a menu option that turns the TV on at specific times during a vacation, TV manufactures can create the illusion that someone is still in the house causing burglars to move to the next house.  This should add no cost to the TV but should provide piece of mind to the owner.

PS. While searching for images for this article, I came across the following company that does this very task expect they sell a stand alone LED device that mimics the TV light in a room.  http://faketv.com/