Because most Japanese people don’t really like the idea of having a roommate, a lot of young people end up living alone, including young women. While Tokyo is much safer than large cities in many other countries, crime does happen, and criminals often do consider young women who live alone to be easy targets.

To help address this problem, and also to put the minds of female tenants at ease, apartment management company Leo Palace 21 has developed what it calls the Man on the Curtain system.

Using a projector controlled by and attached to a smartphone, Man on the Curtain throws a silhouette of a man onto your curtains, so that when people outside look at your windows, there will appear to be a guy inside, thus masking the fact that you live alone.

If you’re wondering how that’s better than just putting a cardboard cutout by your window, Man on the Curtain is full-motion, projecting videos of actual actors (in silhouette) for an extremely lifelike look.

Currently, the system has 12 different options, including such intimidating routines as a boxer throwing practice punches, a martial artist going through a karate kata, a bodybuilder working out with dumbbells and a sports fan swinging a baseball bat around.

More relaxed choices include a guy vacuuming, folding laundry and doing yoga, which seems like it could double as a fitness video that you could do yourself in tandem with your shadowy protector.

Since it would be easy to deduce that a short loop is a fake, each video is roughly 30 minutes long, with a variety of motions.

Granted, some of the options, such as the man vacuuming or playing guitar, aren’t going to be as effective if a would-be criminal is close enough to the window to notice the lack of sound. But the images themselves are very convincing.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【剪影】jiǎnyǐng silhouette the outline or general shape of something

【跟着】gēnzhe in tandem with occurring or acting simultaneously or in conjunction with

因为大多数日本人不太喜欢和室友同住，很多年轻人都是独居，其中包括年轻女性。尽管与许多其他国家的大城市相比，东京要安全得多，但也有犯罪发生，独居年轻女性往往被罪犯视为容易下手的目标。

为解决这个问题，让女性住户安心，物业管理公司Leo Palace 21开发了一个名为“窗帘上的男友”的系统。

这个系统通过一个由智能手机控制的投影仪，把一名男性的轮廓投射到你的窗帘上，人们从外面看窗户时，会看到一个男人的形象，这样就可以假装你不是独居了。

你可能在想这比在窗户上放一块纸板好在哪里。“窗帘上的男友”是全动态的，系统投射的是真实演员的剪影视频，看起来非常逼真。目前，该系统有12款不同的选择，包括一些令人生畏的剪影视频，比如练拳的拳击手、练习空手道的武术大师、举哑铃锻炼的健美爱好者以及来回挥舞棒球棒的体育迷。

还有更加闲适的项目，包括拿吸尘器清扫的男性、折叠衣物的男性、做瑜伽的男性——你似乎还可以把它当成一段健身视频，和你的影子保护者一起运动。

因为短短一小段循环视频容易被识破，所以每段视频长度大约有30分钟，里面有各种各样的动作。

当然，如果犯罪分子离窗户很近，拿吸尘器打扫和弹吉他等男性剪影视频就会露馅，因为他们会注意到房间里并没有声音。但剪影本身是很逼真的。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)