Concerned about surveillance cameras invading your privacy? Don’t worry, some friendly people are helping make sure you’ll hardly even notice the cameras spying on you. Here are two examples from Japan:

—
1. Daruma-san is watching you.

The city of Takasaki in Gunma Prefecture, hometown of the Daruma doll, has found a way of combining its famous dolls with surveillance cameras. Shoppers and customers of local businesses have been installing cameras within one of the eyes of special Daruma dolls. The dolls have “this is a surveillance camera” painted on their bodies, but they look friendlier than most security cameras.
—
2. Pretty wooden cameras

In this video clip, we are shown a ryokan in Kyoto that is using a surveillance camera with a wooden body. It is thought that such cameras can give business owners a greater sense of security while not interfering with the traditional beauty of Japanese style wooden buildings.
—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Related Posts:

The emerging surveillance society in Japan Friendly Beijing cop greets visitors in Japanese (and other languages) Surveillance cameras installed to prevent people from secretly filming schoolgirls Daryl Cagle in Tokyo Canadian first lady snubs Japanese foot bath