Japanese adult satellite network ERO24TV is currently donating money to an AIDS awareness charity based on how long you can keep your eyes closed in front of your monitor—they’re not going to make it easy though!

From 25 November to 6 December, the “Love is Patience” challenge will be available online. To participate you will need to have a webcam connected to your computer. Onboard cameras like those found on laptops are okay, but smartphone and tablets don’t appear to work.

▼ All you get to see if you don’t have a webcam.

Once you click ‘play’, you are given some instructions by a nice young lady, and your own camera is activated.

First you must calibrate it by showing how your face looks with your eyes open and closed. Then, once your close your eyes, the game begins.

With your eyes shut, the woman treats you to some information about AIDS. However, at random intervals during the lecture one of her friends pops in for a visit and gives you temptations such as “I have some G-cup boobs here if you open your eyes.” If you give in to temptation and open your eyes, the webcam will trigger an alarm and the session will come to an abrupt end.

If you can stay strong, however, for each minute you keep your eyes closed the company will donate five yen (US$0.04) to the Stop! AIDS Charity.

▼ After a little over a day, 4,280 yen had been raised.

You might be thinking that this is a surprisingly (technologically) sophisticated project for a porn channel to pull off. You may be right to do so, since a writer for the Japanese site Netlab reports that when he gave it a try the alarm kept going off even though he hadn’t opened his eyes…or so he claims.

So, in the same spirit of journalism that my role models Brian Williams and William Randolph Hearst possessed, I decided to investigate further. And if I end helping AIDS awareness then hey, that’s great too.

After calibrating my webcam I closed my eyes and the presentation began. The audio quality was surprisingly good and even using the onboard speakers of my laptop I could get the vivid sense that the women were standing all around. I imagine with a 5.1 setup it could be pretty immersive.

Thanks to my superhuman willpower I managed to get through the entire thing. When I was told I could open my eyes I was treated to the aftermath of their little romp as they waved goodbye. It took about four minutes and resulted in 20 yen ($0.16) being donated.

In the end, though, my curiosity got the better of me, so I duped a co-worker into doing it too so I could watch from off camera. For both of us the eye detection worked pretty well, but the lighting in the room did play a big role. If your area is not well-lit, it will probably think your eyes are open after a minute or so and the site will kick you out.

▼ The blue circle is the eye gauge which measures five levels of openness.

Even if the risque content isn’t your cup of tea, you have to admit that its an interesting and very clever approach to fundraising by ERO24TV fusing their core strengths with technology. I look forward to seeing what they do next…or not seeing I guess.

Anyway, you’ll probably be wanting that link, won’t you? Have fun, and stay strong!

Love is Patience

Source: Love is Patience, Stop! AIDS via Netlab (Japanese)