The Daruma dolls have real eyes.

Most, if not all stores now-a-days have some sort of surveillance system in place to keep track of those that choose to not be law abiding citizens. Personally, if im casually browsing in a store and just by chance look up and stare straight into the camera, I get an unsettling feeling even though I have done nothing wrong.

When I used to work retail, I could go into the security room and see what they are actually watching. Take it from me, they watch everything. No matter how mundane and boring, you can guarantee they are watching. People picking noses, and scratching places they wouldn’t think to do in public is all on tape. Knowing that, I hate the fact that I am being watched.

In Takasaki, they have come up with a less intrusive way of keeping an eye on everyone without making the innocent feel paranoid that someone is watching them at all times. Takasaki is the birthplace of the daruma doll, a Japanese wish doll. The concept behind the daruma dolls are that you draw on the right eye when you make a wish, and when it comes true, they you draw in the left.

The company has replaced the right eye with a motion camera that from a distance looks just like a normal daruma doll. While I do like the idea, as I was writing this, I had to look at the other point of view. While it is clearly written on the daruma doll, “this is a surveillance camera,” some stores could easily not tell you that you are being watched. Still a cool idea when properly labeled.

Via Japan Probe