There have a been some large earthquakes in Japan recently to go with the hundreds of years of earthquake activity Japan has experienced.
In 1923 when the Great Kanto Earthquake hit Tokyo, the people didn’t have internet and communication devices that could easily carry messages around the globe. They didn’t even have accurate ways to measure the intensity of the earthquake and communicate that to local areas.
A lot of technological improvement has been made on the communication side of things and we can measure earths movements better now as well. The forecasting hasn’t yet made any large breakthroughs (excuse the pun).
In the last earthquake post I showed a web image from weathernews as below. They were using a networked service called the Yure Project (yureプロジェクト) to pull data over the internet from over 1,000 points in Japan and then show it back live through the web.
Through the project you can sign up for a paid service YEN 315 per month ($3) and get advance notice of an earthquake. You can either get the warning on your mobile phone, PC or have one of these devices attached that flashes as well.
If you are in an office or factory it could be pretty handy. If you are asleep in bed, maybe not so much.
Actually, the advance notice is only slightly advanced, and the service is called ‘The Last 10 second’. I think ’10 second Warning’ might have been a better name. ‘The Last 10 second’ sounds like the name of a movie where someone didn’t make it.
It is also possible to be a monitor in the yure project from your own house or at work. Here is a video showing the warning and feedback system. The countdown here is from around 14 seconds.
and the web software version without the flashing lights
If you are a monitor in the program you need to leave your computer on all the time and have to set up the software to relay data from the equipment back to the Center.
More Information
- A good site for all general Japan weather / natural disaster info
- Yure Project site
- Here is the software download page
http://shibuya246.com/2009/08/11/earthquake-news/
That’s quite a warning system. Are they for homes and businesses?
Over here they have warning sirens but not all communities have them installed,but if this happens in the middle of the night, I wonder who would sound the alarms Do they sell early warning weather alert radios in Japan? Alot of people around here have them and say they work great,they’re always advertised on tv over here. Weather is so unpredictible now days that a storm can pop up at any time. We live in whats called Tornado Alley
There are radios you can buy with hand crank dynamos in them so you don’t need a battery. NHK has channels for emergencies where they broadcast what you should and where you should go.
I havent bought one yet 🙂
Great article, thanks.
So how exactly can you go this on your phone? Anyone know how?
This post says 17 comments but I can only see two including mine, so I’m not sure if anyone answered my question – anything I can do to see the rest of the comments?
You can see the other comments from Twitter by clicking on the green bar below that says “Show / hide Twitter comments”. Some of these are just RT’s. Some have additional comments in them. It was suggested I turn these off by default and then allow users to see them if they wanted.
Re the iphone option for earthquake alert, I am trying to find the download page but cant see it. They did say in their blurb you could do it. just cant find how to.
I also have this iphone app installed if you are interested instead
http://shibuya246.com/2009/03/14/iphone-earthquake-app/
Ahh, okay, I see now, thank you! And thanks for the link too, but I don’t have an iPhone. If you find out how to get this on a regular Japanese cell phone, please let us know. I have looked all over too but can only find the computer application.
I’ll see what i can find out. thanks
Here is a really good article on services for all major phone companies in Japan
http://tamegoeswild.com/words/2009/08/japan-earthquake-early-warning-earthquake-system/
Early Earthquake warning iPhone application
Sends push notification to the iPhone based on location, surrounding area and the magnitude of the earthquake. Check it out.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320655564&mt=8