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Living in an earthquake-prone country like Japan means constant vigilance in terms of disaster preparedness. Though the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, struck during daylight hours, there’s no guarantee that a disaster of similar magnitude won’t strike at night. Most people keep a flashlight or two at home, however, if power is cut as a result of an earthquake, as groping your way around in the dark while in a panicked state might not be as easy as you think.
Thankfully, Tokyo’s Force Media group has come up with an ingenius solution to this problem. And it’s much more than just a regular-old flashlight.
The company is hoping you’ll consider equipping your home with their new Gura-pika flashlight/radio hybrid with hand crank power generating capability. At first glance, Force Media’s device doesn’t appear to be much different than other offerings on the market.
However, its radio tuner is operating around the clock and when emergency warnings are broadcast over Japan’s Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system or its Emergency Warning System (EWS), the flashlight will automatically turn itself on and sound an alarm. In other words, when you feel the quake shaking, you won’t be left in the dark.
Even if you have the FM/AM radio and light switched off the tuner is constantly in operation. As such, the flashlight should be left plugged into a wall socket using the provided AC adapter. Should an unfortunate situation arise, the fully-charged LED flashlight will provide about 14 hours of illumination while the radio will work for around six.
Of course, the Gura-pika is equipped with a hand crank for manual charging. Rotating the crank about 120 to 150 times for one minute will generate enough power to operate the light for 38 minutes and the radio for eight.
Price: 5,980 yen.
Source: Web R25
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5 Comments
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ChibaChick
My first reaction was "that will save you valuable nanoseconds flicking the switch!" but actually, now I think about it - good idea. My kids are always finding, stealing, playing with and running out the batteries on the emergency torches (no matter where we hide them, and even if we buy them their own torches!) so actually this will be useful just to FIND the bloody thing in the event of a quake! (my guess would be under the sofa!)
Serrano
Cool!
Lowly
I just bought a crank light / radio from Ambient Weather, google it. The battery can be recharged w/hand crank, solar panel, or via USB or can have regular AA batteries put into it. It is very bright, and also has a radio and emergency broadcast capable.
But the really cool thing is, it has 6 or so different portals (?) for plugging other electric deveces in to it, and recharging them, like your cell phone etc... Really cool.
35 ish bucks, plus s and h.
JackClampton
@Lowly: Devices like these have come a long way over the years, but the one you have described is by far the coolest and efficient I've ever heard of!
Elbuda Mexicano
In the middle of the night! This would really come in handy for the next big quake!!