| Home | Highlights | Intro | Objective | System | More |

What Do they Leave to Be Desired?

The efficiency of today’s networks for instant emergency response varies—at least in a really big event. Today, pollable landline telephone connections could take up to 30 minutes to return their data, if they can be reached at all after a major earthquake. Continuous telemetry systems solve these problems, but at high cost.

Taking a closer look at the status-quo, there are at least four different fields where significant improvement could be achieved by adopting the latest technology:

• A fully outfitted strong motion station ideally should become compact, rugged, and cheap
• A denser array of real time instruments could offer a crucial advantage in both response and subsequent mitigation.
• More robust telemetry could avoid problematic delays or failures in time-critical communications.
• Merging the needs and expertise of different disciplines would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of rescue operations.