ISRAEL 
HIGH-TECH & INVESTMENT REPORT

from the February 2005 issue


Israeli Invents Earthquake Detector


An Israeli invention provides early warning in the event of an earthquake like the one which devastated southeast Asia last month. The device is as small as a shoebox and will cost consumers less than $200.

Israeli inventor Meir Gitlis developed the system, which has received much attention in the wake of the disastrous earthquake which devastated much of southeast Asia's coastline. Gitlis said that he doesn't claim his early warning system could have made much of a difference, but any advance warning would have been better than none and indeed could have saved lives.

"Since the disaster occurred in the Far East, we've gotten requests from companies to use our sensor technology and to develop an instrument warning against tsunamis," Gitlis said.

Gitlis's "Earthquake Alert" is based on the same seismological principles as earthquake monitoring systems used by weather centers and government agencies worldwide. It contains an array of pendulums that react naturally to vibrations, sending a signal through an electronic circuit to a chip. After analyzing the frequency, the computer chip determines whether the movement was caused by a sonic boom, a bomb or indeed caused by the tremors of an earthquake.

"An earthquake is like lightning or thunder, first comes the primary waves which run through the ground very quickly," said Gitlis. "The instrument can sense the primary wave which occurs tens of seconds before the secondary wave, which is the destructive wave. The advancewarning of a half minute enables people to find cover."

Gitlis said that Israel's Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv - the country's tallest buildings - have installed the Earthquake Alert in the skyscrapers' elevators. In the event of a quake, the system stops the elevators at the nearest floor, allowing people a chance to escape.

Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo tested the sensor recently and concluded that it is reliable and does not react to false alarms.


Reprinted from the Israel High-Tech & Investment Report February 2005

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