Pikatto

It’s the weekend before Halloween for those of you ghosts and ghouls haunting the U.S., so in the spirit of my favorite holiday here is the Halloween edition of Pikatto. Have a wicked All Hallows Eve!

An earthquake warning system is under development by Japan’s telecom giant NTT, which will give a short warning prior to an earthquake via its hikari fibre (fibre optics) network.

If this works, it will be an amazing achievement that will surely save lives. I wish this had been in place when Fukuoka had its first major quake in March of 2005.

The bad news is that this system is tied to NTT’s hikari fibre internet service, which is not available throughout Japan–we were unable to get the service in our old apartment in Onojyo–so this service will be quite limited.

It’s surprising that the government isn’t developing a similar system using a less limiting delivery method. Every city, town, and village in Japan that I’ve ever been to was equipped with loudspeakers to warn of fires, typhoons, and other emergencies. I can understand why NTT is not interested in using the existing loudspeakers as their delivery system, but why isn’t the government doing so?

Now that the technology exists which can provide warnings of earthquakes–at least in theory–shouldn’t that service be provided to every person in Japan regardless of where they live or how much their income?

For more of the details on how the system will work check out Pink Tentacle.

Here is a short commercial dramatizing NTT’s earthquake warning service on YouTube.

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Japan, NTT, Earthquakes, Technology