The children are our future and if we don't tech them to turn lights off to conserve energy then who will? Well, this colorful kid-friendly ghost guy, Tio, can do it.

To keep kids in check and make sure they're shutting off lights, nothing's going to work better than a novelty character—in this case, a ghost—with a traffic-light inner glow and emoticon-inspired expressions.

If the lights have been on for under an hour, Tio stays happy and green. As you start to use up power (past the four-hour mark), Tio turns yellow and his face starts to show a little bit of worry for mother nature (and mommy and daddy's power bills). When you've been sitting pretty with lights on for over 8 hours, Tio turns red and angry.

We dig the idea! Even though it's in the concept stage, we can see kids responding to Tio way better than a lecture from mom and dad about energy conservation. Designer Tim Holley is on to something, don't ya think?!

Via Ubergizmo