Earthquake Early Warning System Pioneered in Japan

Tomo Hiratsuka writes "After recent destructive earthquakes around the world, Japanese scientists have come up with an earthquake early-warning system that uses sensors and various technologies, including iPv6, to provide up to a minute's warning, which could make a lot of difference, especially in the event of a tsunami. Bizarrely, one of the warning methods even involves networked photocopiers, believe it or not."

Comments

Networked photocopiers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Photocopier 1: Uh oh, paper appears to be jittering about in the scanning area.
Photocopier 2: Yeah, I noticed that too, but I thought it was the fatty going to the vending machine again!
Vending Machine: He's always pressing my buttons!
Photocopier 1: Do we think there'll be an earthquake?
Photocopier 3: Hmm, better warn people. Bum, some c*nts downloading pr0n again and the networks really slow.
Photocopier 2: I'll do it!

Oh, reading the article it works the other way around as a fast office-notification warning system. That's not nearly as interesting.

Xerox to the rescue

[Ravenscall]

Bizarrely, one of the warning methods even involves networked photocopiers, believe it or not."

But is it a beowulf cluster?

Buzzword Bingo?

[lonb]

Using Ipv6? Um, why not also mention "using electricity" and "using gravity"?!? It'd be nice if there were less buzzword usage and more focus on the critical technologies in use.

Re:Buzzword Bingo?

[Monkeys!!!]

Yeah, they could of just said it was a synergy network that combines dynamic paper producers to predict earth based movements.

People have short memories

[Heian-794]

The idea is simple -- it takes time for a tremor to propagate from its epicenter, but a sensor near the epicenter can transmit data virtually instantly. This short period can be enough for people to stop their cars, get under desks, etc., etc.

The article mentions how interest in this kind of thing has waned since the 1995 Kobe earthquake. I'd add that the average Japanese person knew little about the internet and its capabilities of delivering information at light-speed in 1995. (The average person then didn't even have a cell phone!)

With people's memories so short, look for interest in thsi technology explode after the next big earthquake. Hopefully that won't be the one that kills thousands and destroys people's homes.

Re:People have short memories

[Bazzalisk]

In 1995 the average person in japan may not have had a cell-phone - but I'm fairly sure that a substantial number of them did, remember that Japan was a very early adopter of this kind of technology.

Re:People have short memories

[Anonymous Coward]

Well an Ex-Fema directormade a lits fo the disaters that FEMA was least prepared to handle. 1. a terror attack in NYC 2. A large scale hurricane in NOLA 3. a major earthquake in san fransico.

Seeing as how two of the three have come to pass, it's only a matter of time before we get to see how badly FEMA can mis-manage an earthquake in san fransisco, remember the last 'really devistating' quake in the bay area was in 1908, and the town was completely razed by that one. some people seem to think that the town is built rather solidly against earthquakes, but between the destruction and disruption of normal services to FEMA mismangment of any potential crisis there could be many thousands dead all told when the next 'big one' hits.

hmm ...

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Well obviously this can only mean that Godzilla has been using iPv6 and the Japanese gov't tapped into his communications.

Proven Technology

[EMeta]

I'm just impressed that the engineers thought to use what is always the office's most reliable appliance, the copying machine. Because if you need one device that's not going to break--why go anywhere else?

Re:Proven Technology

[smooth wombat]

I know you're joking but speaking from experience I can tell you I have never had any problems with our Xerox printers, once properly configured, unless someone fiddles with them (which shouldn't be happening in the first place). The same can be said for the Savin machines we have.

However, since the Commonwealth (PA) has forced all agencies to buy/lease only Imagistics printers/copiers, I have had nothing but problems. Printers stop communicating with the network for no reason, can't configure LDAP on any of them, scanning issues (crooked, only one page, etc), limited email slots. Two of our machines have Fiery boxes attached to them rather than a simple NIC! The list goes on.

Stay far away from Imagistics. Slap your boss or purchaser if they even consider Imagistics. You might remember those commercials for Imagistics a year or so ago where the women in the office intentionally disable their machine so the hunky repair guy can come in. Ostensibly they were trying to say that was the only way the repair would come. Forget it. These pieces of crap don't need any help breaking. They do fine on their own.

Gotcha practical joke

[jurt1235]

Disturb a few sensors, and half of Japan is sitting underneath their desks (-:

Earthquake *prediction* networks soon?

[SysKoll]

The warning method described in TFA is nice, but it would be much better to have some early warning (hours to days) that an earthquake is imminent. The december issue of IEEE Spectrum contains an article describing what technology could be used.

Most of it is surprisingly simple -- the problem being that the physics of earthquake is not well understood yet. For instance, people often observed eerie lighs in the sky in the hours before a quake. Turns out that rock squeezed along a rift can free up eletrons, which means that huge currents flow accross the soil when the pressure is maximum -- right before a quake. It also seems to generate VLF noise (around 0.01 Hz). A simple pair of metal plates separated by an airgap can detect the chance of air conductivity, along with a VLF receptor, can thus form a good earthquake forecast station.

Of course, nobody really knows why these eletrical phenomenon occurs before a quake. But they still can be observed.

Re:Earthquake *prediction* networks soon?

[dolmant_php]

My Father is a geologist at the USGS. This topic has come up many times. The USGS spent a lot of time and money trying to predict earthquakes, with no success - there was no consistent behavior before a quake to signal the coming of one. Furthermore, what would they do with thit information? Let's assume they had good reason to believe that L.A. would experience an earthquake in the next 24 hours. If they released this information it would cause _more_ damage in the ensuing panic than the quake itself. Earthquake prediction is not coming.

Re:Earthquake *prediction* networks soon?

[statusbar]

...people often observed eerie lights in the sky in the hours before a quake...Of course, nobody really knows why these electrical phenomenon occurs before a quake. But they still can be observed.

Obviously, the earthquakes are caused by aliens flying ufo's after they place the earthquake-causing plasma bombs beneath the crust...

--jeffk++

Re:Earthquake *prediction* networks soon?

[SysKoll]

Yup, either that, or they set up an earthquake bomb and then flee to their orbital mothership using their invisible ships, which leave a telltale trail of plasma residue.

Almost as easy to believe as the theory that crushing rocks generates electricity.

Re:Earthquake *prediction* networks soon?

[SysKoll]

Well, considering what a mess southern California is, I see why your father, as any concerned citizen, would think that an earthquake would actually improve LA. I fully agree.

Unfortunately, the Japanese aren't so enlightened and think their citizens can entertain some silly notions of "civil safety" and "preparation". Laughable, I say. Avoid the subway or the high speed if you know a quake is coming? Why, such preposterous ideas. That would deprive the news network of all the juicy victim shots.

RTFA

[A nonymous Coward]

It is relevant.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is also being put to use. NTT East, the local telephone carrier in Tokyo, has developed an IPv6-based system (top) that uses multicasting technology to broadcast the data to cut down on internet delays.

Re:RTFA

[lonb]

It's no more relevant than electricity. IPv6 offers multicasting, really these guys have developed an implementation of a known functionality. I do the same thing in Java every day. The core relevant technology here is in their algorithms.

I for one...

[JDSalinger]

I for one welcome our new Japanese Earthquake Detecting Overlords!!! .... sounded better in my head.

It all worked so well until...

[rocjoe71]

It all worked so well until the day after the office Christmas party and the photocopy machines were churning out image after image of "cracks" and fissures in the Earth's surface.

Sadly, the article is more spam than content

[Thagg]

One of the authors spends a considerable amount of the article hyping his company "QuakeFinders", which is attempting to secure funding to build hundreds of sensors to blanket California. He says that this will cost tens of millions of dollars, which I'm sure he would see a significant percentage of personally.

The sensor that he descibes, though, sounds trivially simple to build. I could well believe that a system to hook these detectors into an actual warning system could be expensive, but building a bunch of detectors and deploying them around likely faults should be exteremly cheap indeed. Unfortunately, the "detectors" that have been built and deployed so far have yet to detect any earthquakes -- apparently because sufficiently large earthquakes have not been sufficiently close. Or maybe they just don't work, because the science is flawed.

Thad Beier

Apple

[Patik]

iPv6

Is this an Apple product?

US and Mexico have versions too

[peter303]

The US Southern Calfornia Earthquake Center has had several versions in place (also) since the late 1980s. Oil company refineries, L.A. Metro Rail, and gas utility companies are among important customers.

Of course the early version had some snafus in the 1994 Northridge quake. At that time it was pager-based and pager buffer overflowed with lesser aftershocks. They fixed it up in time to successfully warn construction crews repairing freeway overpasses.

Mexico has been working on this equally long. They can experience magnitude eight quakes off its western shores. But by the time these seismic waves reach Mexico City several minutes later, they're peak energy is just that to resonate skyscapers which were built in the old Aztec lake bed. Early years there were a number of false alarms, but some successes too. As with Japan and the US, the current systems are more robust.

Here's an early warning....

[gfxguy]

If you live on or near a fault, move.

your kidding me right ..

[torpor]

.. cell phones? japan? 1995?

you bet your ass everyone could have a cell phone who wanted one ..

this whole concept of connected photocopiers was pioneered by the japanese, as a computing concept, in the 70's .. and has been in steady iteration since the 80's ..

(i'm a bit more interested in running torrent on the toaster, but thats just me..)

One minute's fine!

[Arrepiadd]

There is a great benefit from a one minute warnign that is better than nothing. Imagine a surgeon about to make a precise cut. Suddenly everything starts to shake. Oops, there goes an artery and part of a spleen or something...
Also for rescue workers during aftershocks in order to make them get out before the ground starts shaking and the buildings colapse on them.

In this way a one minute warning is even better than a 1 day warning like "in the next 24 hours there will be an earthquake so let us all go outside just to avoid building colapsing and stop all cirurgies in order to avoid bigger damage"