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INNOVATION RESOURCES

Earthquake Alert

Breakthrough:
An early warning system for homes and offices that lets you know an earthquake is on its way before the ground starts moving beneath you.

Inventor:
Meir Gitlis, Israel

Financial reward:
$1 million +

The Story:

Earthquake Alert is a device which is about the size of a shoebox and is based on the seismological principles of global earthquake monitoring systems. There is an arrangement of sensitive pendulums that naturally react to vibrations. These are sent via an electronic circuit to a chip that analyzes the frequency to determine the exact cause of the bad vibes – for example a sonic boom, bomb or earthquake.

Vibration Detector

The system senses the primary or P waves. These are the fast moving vibrations which run through the ground and occur about 10 seconds before the slower moving but destructive secondary waves. This may not sound like a lengthy warning, and it’s not, but inventor Meir Gitlis contends that any warning is better than none and it can be all the difference between life and death. The further the device is away from the epicenter of the quake the more warning there is, which can be up to 45 seconds. A red light only alarm means that a non-destructive earthquake is on its way; flashing red lights and a loud alarm means that a potentially dangerous quake is coming.

Boy Inventor

Gitlis has been an inventor since he was 10 years old when he came up with an alarm system for his bedroom which was constructed out of tins cans and wires. Since then he has developed more than 100 inventions, primarily through a company he founded called Avtipus Patents and Innovations. He has a lifelong obsession with inventing and according to an interview he gave to Jewish News Weekly he believes the best hours for inventing are between 6 and 8 a.m. “I can do much more in those two hours than I can the rest of the day. My brain is very clear and I can see everything in 3-D.”

Reliable Technology

The Earthquake Alert was tested by scientists at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the results supported Gitlis's claim that it doesn't react to sonic booms or other false alarms. “The pre-warning devices provided a consistent response under the simulated ground motions, regardless of whether this was repetitive ground motion or another earthquake,” said Prof Andrei Reinhorn, the former director of Buffalo's Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory. “No false alarm which could have involved spontaneous triggering or detection within the background noise (pretest noise) occurred."

The sensitive detector was developed through Avtipus, is marketed by EQ Technologies and went on sale in 2005. It can also be customized to turn off mains gas and disconnect electricity when an earthquake is imminent.

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