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Read More About: Cell Phones
(891)

Earthquake Warning System Uses Cell Phones

Japanese telecoms are developing a system that sends
government earthquake warnings to cell phones seconds ahead of a major
earthquake.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:00 AM PDT

Cell phones in Japan could soon provide a vital warning seconds ahead of a
major earthquake.

The country's three largest cellular carriers, NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp.
and Softbank Mobile Corp., plan to develop a way to automatically funnel alerts
to cell phones from a new government advance warning system, which went into
operation last year.

The system, operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), ties together
an extensive network of earthquake monitors on a high-speed network to provide
data to a variety of users, including TV stations, manufacturers and cell phone
operators.

The system provides warnings by measuring the primary waves (P-waves) from a
quake, which are weak and fast-moving, to automatically predict when the slower
and much more destructive secondary waves (S-waves) will arrive at a given
location and how strong they will be.

The amount of warning varies and could be anything from a few seconds to up
to a minute. People closer to the quake's epicenter get shorter warnings -- and
in some cases might get none at all -- but researchers agree that the
possibility of any warning is better than none.

The government data, which will provide the base for the cell phone system,
has already been supplied to a number of groups, including manufacturers and
hospitals.

The buildings are equipped with receivers to receive data from the government
or service providers. The alarm system is designed to automatically stop heavy
machinery or save PC data. In the future, it may also be able to automatically
shut off gas valves. In the earthquake that hit Kobe in 1995, more people died
from resulting fires than from the quake itself.

The cell phone companies hope to have a system launched in 2008.

Related Searches: japan • cell phones • earthquake
warnings

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