If you work in an office or live in a home with people who have a sweet tooth and sticky fingers, this is the dessert-saving device you need.

Many years ago an English student of mine, who’d just learned the word “everyone,” practiced her new vocabulary by declaring “Everyone loves pudding.” I don’t think truer words have ever been spoken, but the dark side of that absolute truth is that other people would also love your pudding, which you’re currently keeping in the fridge so that you can savor it later.

Realistically, every second you’re not eating your pudding exponentially increases the risk that someone will steal it for themselves. However, there may soon be a way to have your pudding in the fridge but eventually eat it to, thanks to Japanese technology innovation group aNo Ken.

The primary components of the Pudding Alert system are a sensor-equipped plate and a monitor. When Pudding Alert detects that your precious pudding is being pinched, the ordinarily docile face shows visible anger, with manga-style bulging veins of rage appearing on its forehead as it repeatedly shouts “The pudding has be stolen!” (Purin ga torareta) and “Return the pudding!” (Purin kaeshite ne) through its speakers, alerting anyone in earshot to the crime in progress.

If the thief repents and puts the pudding back, Pudding Alert calms down, and announces “The pudding has returned” (Purin ga kaette kita), but this might have the deviously minded thinking they can beat the system. Just take the pudding and put any object in its place, and you’ve pulled off the perfect crime, right?

Nope, because Pudding Alert knows how much the pudding that was initially in place weighs, and if it detects a different weight on the plate instead, it knows you’re trying to substitute it with something less valuable than pudding (i.e. anything else in the world), and shouts “This isn’t pudding!” (Kore purin to chigau), as shown in the video below.

Okay, but what if you’re a master dessert thief? You know exactly how much every brand of pudding weighs, and you carry around a whole set of precise weights, with which you plan to outwit Pudding Alert’s pressure plate like you’re Indiana Jones in the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Well, first I should remind you that Indy’s plan wasn’t as clever as he thought (remember the giant boulder trap he triggered?), and things aren’t going to go any better for you.

At the moment the pudding is lifted off the plate, Pudding Alert’s attached camera takes a photo and immediately emails it to the pudding’s owner, something it also does if anyone tries to move the unit itself, as it’s equipped with an accelerometer.

It seems like this would also mean you end up with a photo of yourself when you reach into the fridge to retrieve the pudding that’s rightfully yours, but considering the delightful smile you’ll probably have on your face at that moment, odds are it’ll be a really nice-looking picture.

Oh, and since Pudding Alert works by sensing a change in the weight on the pressure plate, it could also easily function as Beer Alert.

Pudding Alert has been in development for two years as a part-time side project for lead designer Mr. Nemoto and his colleagues at the engineering company where they work their day jobs. After undergoing a series of upgrades on its way to its current Pudding Alert 2.1 incarnation, Nemoto says that if enough people say they’d like to buy it, they’ll consider making the system commercially available.

This is of course a development that can’t come a moment too soon, and could help this Japanese dad whose son tried to wish him off the planet.

Source: TV Asahi News via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko, aNo Ken

Top image: aNo Ken

Insert images: YouTube/aNo研, Pakutaso, SoraNews24

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Follow Casey on Twitter, where now he wants pudding AND beer.