Disaster prediction system

• US 20070033153A1
• Filed: 10/25/2004
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Uesugi, Mitsuru, Motozuka, Hiroyuki, Yamanaka, Ryutaro
• Application Number:
  US10/577,473
• Publication Number:
  US 20070033153A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/21
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/008 Earthquake measurement or prediction event detection for microseismic events G01V1/288
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/01 Measuring or predicting earthquakes

Abstract

A disaster prediction system that provides a plurality of mobile communications apparatuses with a function for detecting abnormal signals that are effective in natural disaster prediction, manages location information for the mobile communications apparatuses and appropriately sets areas of natural disaster prediction, collects a plurality of abnormality detection signals from the mobile communications apparatuses, analyzes these signals per area of prediction, improves the accuracy of natural disaster occurrence prediction, and transmits natural disaster-related information to a plurality of mobile communications apparatuses present in the areas of prediction. In this system, a mobile terminal 200 is equipped with functions for detecting an electromagnetic signal which correlates with earthquake occurrence and which comes from underground and detecting an abnormal electromagnetic signal and a function for locating its present position, a location management apparatus 300 manages location information for a plurality of mobile terminals 200, and an earthquake prediction apparatus 400 appropriately sets the areas of prediction of earthquake occurrence, according to the location management information, and collects a plurality of abnormality detection signals from the mobile terminals 200, generates earthquake-related alert information based on analysis per area of prediction, and transmits that information to the mobile terminals 200.

Claims

1. A disaster prediction system in which a disaster prediction apparatus collects abnormality detection signals relating to a natural disaster from a plurality of mobile communications apparatuses via a wireless communications network and provides information related to the natural disaster analyzed by the disaster prediction apparatus to the mobile communications apparatuses via the wireless communications network, the disaster prediction system comprising:

said mobile communications apparatuses, each mobile communications apparatus comprising;

a location detection section that locates a present position;

an abnormal signal detection section that receives an electromagnetic signal coming from a natural world, detects an abnormal signal and outputs an abnormality detection signal;

a first communications section that transmits the present position to a location management apparatus via the wireless communications network, transmits the abnormality detection signal to the disaster prediction apparatus via the wireless communications network, and receives the information related to the natural disaster from the disaster prediction apparatus via the wireless communications network; and

an alerting section that alerts the information related to the natural disaster received by the first communications section;

the location management apparatus receives present positions from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses via the wireless communications network and manages location information of each mobile communications apparatus; and

said disaster prediction apparatus, comprising;

a second communications section that receives abnormality detection signals from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses via the wireless communications network, receives the location information of each mobile communications apparatus from the location management apparatus via the wireless communications network, and transmits the information related to the natural disaster to the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses via the wireless communications network;

a disaster prediction section that collects and analyzes the abnormality detection signals received from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses per area based on the location information and predicts occurrence of the natural disaster per area; and

an information generating section that generates the information related to the natural disaster based on results of prediction by the disaster prediction section.

2. The disaster prediction system according to claim 1, wherein:

the disaster prediction section sets areas of prediction based on the location information of each mobile communications apparatus managed by the location management apparatus, collects and analyses the abnormality detection signals received from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses and predicts occurrence of the natural disaster per area of prediction; and

the information generating section generates alert information based on a result of prediction per area of prediction by the disaster prediction section.

3. The disaster prediction system according to claim 1, wherein the abnormal signal detection section comprises:

a storage section that stores a threshold against which an electromagnetic signal level is compared; and

a comparison section that compares the electromagnetic signal level to the threshold stored in the storage section and outputs an abnormality detection signal when the electromagnetic signal level exceeds the threshold.

4. The disaster prediction system according to claim 1, wherein the abnormal signal detection section comprises:

a first storage section that stores a first threshold against which an electromagnetic signal level is compared;

a first comparison section that compares the electromagnetic signal level to the first threshold stored in the first storage section and outputs a first comparison detection signal when the electromagnetic signal level exceeds the first threshold;

a counting section that counts the number of times the first comparison detection signal is output from the first comparison section in a set period of time;

a second storage section that stores a second threshold against which a count value in the counting section is compared;

a second comparison section that compares the count value to the second threshold stored in the second storage section and outputs an abnormality detection signal when the count value exceeds the second threshold; and

a calculation section that calculates and outputs a maximum value and average value of the electromagnetic signal level in the set period of time;

the second communications section transmits the abnormality detection signal output from the second comparison section and the maximum value and average value of the electromagnetic signal level output from the calculation section to the disaster prediction apparatus via the wireless communications network;

the second communications section receives abnormality detection signals and maximum values and average values of the electromagnetic signal level from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses via the wireless communications network; and

the disaster prediction section collects and analyzes the abnormality detection signals and the maximum values and average values of the electromagnetic signal level received from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses per area of prediction and predicts occurrence of the natural disaster per area.

5. The disaster prediction system according to claim 4, wherein the disaster prediction section determines whether the frequency of receiving the abnormality detection signals from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses and the maximum values and average values of the electromagnetic signal level are greater than or equal to respective reference values, determines whether the number of reports of abnormality detection signals from each area of prediction is greater than or equal to a reference value, determines whether the reports greater than or equal to the reference value have been received in a same time period, and predicts occurrence of the natural disaster per area of prediction based on results of these determinations.

7. The disaster prediction system according to claim 1, wherein:

the alerting section comprises a vibration control section and a vibration section; and

the vibration control section changes a strength or cycle of vibration of the vibration section in accordance with the received information related to the natural disaster.

8. The disaster prediction system according to claim 1, wherein:

the alerting section comprises a flash cycle/light emission intensity adjusting section and a light emission section; and

the flash cycle/light emission intensity adjusting section changes the flash cycle or light emission intensity of the light emission section in accordance with the received information related to the natural disaster.

9. The disaster prediction system according to claim 1, wherein:

the alerting section comprises a sound information storage section, a sound reproduction section, a volume adjusting section and a sound emission section; and

the sound reproduction section selects sound information stored in the sound information storage section in accordance with the received information related to the natural disaster, outputs a reproduced sound signal and a volume adjustment signal to the volume adjusting section and adjusts the volume of the reproduced sound.

10. The disaster prediction system according to claim 1, wherein:

the alerting section comprises an image information storage section, an image reproduction section and a display section; and

the image reproduction section selects image information stored in the image storage section in accordance with the received information related to the natural disaster, outputs an image reproduction signal to the display section and displays a reproduced image.

6. A disaster prediction system in which a disaster prediction apparatus collects abnormality detection signals relating to a natural disaster from a plurality of mobile communications apparatuses via a wireless communications base station and a communications network and provides information related to the natural disaster analyzed by the disaster prediction apparatus to the mobile communications apparatuses via the communications network and the wireless communications base station, said disaster prediction system comprising:

said mobile communications apparatuses, each mobile communication apparatus comprising;

an abnormal signal detection section that receives an electromagnetic signal coming from a natural world, detects an abnormal signal and outputs an abnormality detection signal;

a first communications section that transmits the abnormality detection signal to the wireless communications base station and receives the information related to the natural disaster from the disaster prediction apparatus via the communications network and the wireless communications base station; and

an alerting section that alerts the information related to the natural disaster received by the first communications section;

a wireless communications base station that manages communications with a plurality of mobile communications in a coverage area of the wireless communications base station and communications with the disaster prediction apparatus and a location management apparatus and transmits location information managed by the wireless communications base station to the location management apparatus via the communications network;

the location management apparatus that receives the location information from the wireless communications base station via the communications network and manages the location information; and

the disaster prediction apparatus, comprising;

a second communications section that receives abnormality detection signals from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses via the communications network and the wireless communications base station, receives the location information from the location management apparatus via the communications network, and transmits information related to the natural disaster to the plurality of mobile communications apparatus via the communications network and the wireless communications base station;

a disaster prediction section that collects and analyzes abnormality detection signals received from the plurality of mobile communications apparatuses per area based on the location information and predicts occurrence of the natural disaster per area; and

an information generating section that generates the information related to the natural disaster based on results of prediction by the disaster prediction section.