The new AI-controlled system analyzes footage from high-resolution cameras, two of which are located on the more than 240-meter-high Tokyo City Hall building and one on a bridge near Tokyo Bay in the western part of the city. The capital, local authorities and the system developer Hitachi Co., Ltd.
The system automatically identifies fires and structural damage to buildings in real time.
It immediately transmits information to police, fire and disaster management teams, so that the relevant authorities can immediately begin responding to disasters.
In the next 30 years, according to scientists, there is a 70 percent chance that Tokyo will be hit by a massive earthquake. The quake, with its epicenter located under the southern part of the Japanese capital, is expected to kill more than 6,000 people and damage about 194,000 buildings, according to the researchers’ model.
The AI system that helps with disaster response in Tokyo has been operating since March. By March next year, two more cameras will be installed on the Tokyo Skytree transmission tower, so the system will cover almost the entire capital.
Previously, cameras were operated manually, but after the earthquakes, it became difficult to collect accurate information using this method.
