Hasta La Gadget!

A couple years have passed since the earthquake that devestated Japan and set off a nuclear emergency, resulting in the abandonment of Namie-machi, which is located near the coastline in Fukushima prefecture. The former residents of Namie-machi are still unable to return, but can now take a virtual walk around the place they called home thanks to Google Street View.

In a guest post on Google’s Lat-Long blog, Namie-machi’s mayor Tamotsu Baba detailed the state of things since the earthquake happened, and said that many former residents of the small city have asked to see how things sit today. By partnering with Google, they were able to satisfy these requests by driving Street View vehicles through the ruined city, capturing images of the state of things in the present time.

That imagery can now be viewed by anyone via Google Maps, or on the Miraikioku.com Memories of the Future website, which also has a comparison tool showing before and after maps images of the damage. Scanning through the Street View imagery is a sobering activity. Buildings still lie in ruins, collapsed or in a state of collapse. Piles of rubble lie where homes once sat.

Said Mr. Baba, “Ever since the March disaster, the rest of the world has been moving forward, and many places in Japan have started recovering. But in Namie-machi time stands still. With the lingering nuclear hazard, we have only been able to do cursory work for two whole years. We would greatly appreciate it if you viewed this Street View imagery to understand the current state of Namie-machi and the tremendous gravity of the situation.”

[via Google Latlong]

Google Street View shows abandoned post-earthquake Fukushima city is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s been more than two years since the tragic Eastern Japan tsunami and resulting Fukushima Prefecture nuclear plant crisis, but many of those who lived in affected areas still can’t return: witness the 21,000 residents of Namie, who had to evacuate and haven’t been back since. Thanks to a newly published Google Street View run, those former residents can once more see the town they had to leave. The 360-degree imagery shows Namie in the deserted state it faces today, with little recovery work done or possible. Google’s photos can’t accelerate the recovery process, but Mayor Tamotsu Baba views them as an incentive to eventually return — and a better way for the rest of the world to understand the tsunami’s long-term effects.

Filed under: Internet, Google

Comments

Via: Google Official Blog

Source: Memories for the Future

Sweet, More J-Robots! …Oh. Industrial Robots?
Okay, today will not be heroic rescue & recovery robots, nor life-changing assistive robots for the disabled and elderly. No, today we’re talking Japan’s industrial robots, and through profound statistics, talk of money, and wildly general projections for the future, we’re going to spice up this dry robot salad.
Now, industrial robots are basically super-strong, super-precise, fantastically dexterous multi-jointed arms that do pretty much …

The aptly named Skyward House is relatively secluded from some angles. But it actually faces a pretty well-trafficked road, so the architect had to design it with features that make it feel private. More »

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo isn’t content waiting for Google Now to become commonplace before it gives customers a taste of predictive search. The carrier is near launching a trial for Tap-de-Concier, an Android-based service that will pop up maps, media, games and more depending on both the user’s own habits, as well as usage and trends from DoCoMo’s other portals. The result is a service that theoretically knows what you want, when you want it: Tap-de-Concier can tell that you’re looking for train schedules before work on a Monday morning, and restaurants on Friday night. We imagine that some will like the alternative just because it won’t be confined to Jelly Bean — any DoCoMo-offered phone or tablet with at least Android 2.3 can run the service, including Raku-Raku phones. Locals will have between March 26th and September 30th to decide whether or not Tap-de-Concier is more helpful than its Google parallel.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

Comments

Via: The Next Web

Source: NTT DoCoMo