PART 1: THE SAFECAST PROJECT UPDATE, MARCH 2015
Compiled by Pieter Franken (Japan ops) and Sean Bonner (Global ops)
The Safecast Project now spans numerous aspects of environmental measurement. To keep it simple, the key areas where we’re active today are:
- Safecast Code — what we stand for and how we (think) we do it
- Mobile Radiation Measurement
- Stationary Radiation Measurement
- Air Pollution Measurement
- Open Data (The Safecast API) — the open data store
- Data Visualization: maps and apps!
- Activities: workshops, hackathons, talks
- Reach out: share, help and learn
- Press & Publicity — highlights and coverage
- Volunteers — Safecasters and where you can help
- NPO, Funding & Contributions
- Always Improving — disclaimers
1.1 Safecast Code
The Safecast Code
In 2014 we took a bold move and published the Safecast Code 1.0, which attempts to describe the Safecast project as a whole through a list of 10 attitudes that guide all of our efforts. You could consider it our code of conduct, for reminding ourselves of what are goals really are and what we should be doing. We try to measure up to the attitudes in this list and encourage others to do the same.
- ALWAYS OPEN — We strive to make everything we do transparent, public and accessible.
- ALWAYS IMPROVING -We can always do better so use agile, iterative design to ensure we’re always refining our work.
- ALWAYS ENCOURAGING — We aim to be welcoming and inclusive, and push each other to keep trying.
- ALWAYS PUBLISHING — Results are useless behind closed doors, we try to put everything we’re doing out to the world regularly.
- ALWAYS QUESTIONING — We don’t have all the answers, and encourage continued learning and critical thinking.
- ALWAYS UNCOMPROMISING — Our commitment to our goals keeps us moving closer towards them.
- ALWAYS ON — Safecast doesn’t sleep. We’re aware and working somewhere around the world 24/7
- ALWAYS CREATING — Our mission doesn’t have a completion date, we can always do more tomorrow.
- ALWAYS OBJECTIVE — Politics skews perception, we focus on the data and the questions it presents.
- ALWAYS INDEPENDENT — This speaks for itself.
These principles incorporate some of the guiding principles of Safecast co-founder Joi Ito <http://www.media.mit.edu/about/principles>. “Deploy or Die” and “The power of Pull” are two that resonate a lot with us.
We’re on a mission
We’re not saying that we’re on a mission from God, but we do have something to say:
- We strongly feel data data about our environment should be open, easy to access and easy to understand
- A second opinion about environmental data has to be available. In the age of the Internet of Things, that voice can come directly from citizens
- Official groups such as governments, universities, and companies should publish data about the environment under Creative Commons 0 (“CC-0”) licence and acknowledge the importance of a third parties to validate their own data against.
“The Safecast Report”
You are currently reading the first volume of The Safecast Report, which was published on March 22, 2015, as part of the Safecast Conference 2015 (#SCC2015). We plan to regularly update the report and publish it semi-annually in March and September.
The Safecast Measurement Method
For the coming year, one of our goals is to document the Safecast measurement method and answer many of the questions (and challenges) we have had concerning the method.
1.2 Mobile Radiation Measurement
Since April 2011, Safecast volunteers have been collecting radiation data using bGeigie mobile radiation sensors. As of March 2015, over 600 bGeigies have been built and have collected over 27,000,000 measurements. Almost all Japanese roads have been measured, with many areas repeatedly measured over time to provide clear evidence of radiation level changes. Additionally, data has been collected from every continent around the world and more 65 countries including most of Europe and North America. The Safecast dataset also includes data from far corners including Sudan, Iraq, Antarctica and the Marshall Islands and sites of interest such as Chernobyl.
Hardware
The current work horse for mobile radiation measurement is the bGeigie Nano Kit, of which more than 400 have been deployed since it was released it in mid-2013. Previous generations of the bGeigie family include the bGeigie Mini, bGeigie Plus, the original bGeigie, and the one-of-a-kind xGeigie. We also designed, prototyped, and ultimately abandoned a bGeigie 3. Models prior to the bGeigie Nano were much more labor intensive to build and had a higher individual cost per unit. Creating the scaled-down — in both price and size — bGeigie Nano solved our device availability problem almost overnight, effectively allowing people from all over the world in any location to become Safecast volunteers, regardless of whether or not they had met other Safecasters in person.
Fixed sensor transform kit
While the vast majority of our data comes from mobile devices, we have had a strong interest in having a fixed sensor network as well, especially from volunteers who own a bGeigie Nano. Many would like to be able to convert it into a static sensor so it can collect data at home or the office when they aren’t using it to collect mobile data. We’re currently developing an additional board that can be plugged into the XBEE header on existing bGeigie Nanos that will allow them to collect continuous data for a static location and automatically upload the readings.
For these purposes we’re developing both hardwired (ethernet) and wireless (wifi and Bluetooth) options.
Local Government Measurement Program
In 2012 we started a program to work with cities in Fukushima to measure the entire city, road by road, to discover hotspots and establish values for the entire city. Though many radiation surveys were and are being done in the evacuation zone by the government (see section 2.3 on Environment and Decontamination below), surveys have been inconsistently done in many towns. Through this program we have measured four cities in Fukushima and are planning to remeasure these cities this year.
bGeigie Sharing Program
To get better milage from the fleet of bGeigies, we are working sharing program for bGeigie owners to make their bGeigies available to other volunteers in their communities.
1.3 Stationary Radiation Measurement
Realtime.safecast.org
In March, 2015, realtime.safecast.org launched. This new initiative is focused on deploying stationary radiation sensors in Japan and globally. These sensors will be sending real-time updates about radiation levels and publishing this data without interceptions as CC-0 data.
The sensors in Japan will focus on areas around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, including the exclusion (“difficult to return”) zone. We’re working with volunteers who are in contact with evacuees who have expressed the desire to be able to check the radiation levels at their evacuated houses in realtime. For people living outside of the zone, we will work with volunteers to house the sensors. This will be strictly a “pull” model, where we’re dependent on volunteers who are willing to support the initiative.
Initially we will deploy dual sensors that house two Geiger-muller tubes — one that measures the dose rate equivalent (in uSv/h) and one “pancake” tube to measure the combined alpha, beta, and gamma activity in counts per minute (CPM). The sensor unit is manufactured by Medcom International and has been in production for the past 25 years. Sensors will installed outdoors, while the electronics (called an “nGeigie,” which stands for “network geiger counter”) will be be located indoors.
Currently over 20 realtime sensors have been deployed, and our goal is to deploy 25 more inside Fukushima over the coming months. This deployment is financially made possible by the Shuttleworth foundation.
nGeigie Fixed Sensors
nGeigie is the hardware platform for realtime.safecast.org. The system currently consists of a radiation sensor (Medcom Radius or Hawk) that is connected to a communications box (nGeigie) that relays radiation data realtime to the Safecast API. The initial deployment will focus on getting dense coverage across Fukushima, with some sensors also located in Tokyo and prefectures north of Tokyo. Work is under way to develop a simplified version that can be used in urban areas and will be inexpensive to build and easy to deploy.
Safecast 6D
One limitation of using Geiger tubes is that they tell us how much radiation is present, but nothing much about the isotopes emitting the radiation. This is specifically important when measuring food, but this knowledge can also help us understand the main contributors to the levels measured in the environment and to help correctly compute the derived dose rate. In 2014 Safecast volunteers started to work on an new design and sensor selection to augment the bGeigie and nGeigie, which will be able to “see” more dimensions than in the data we currently collect. At present the project is in the concept stage.
ScanningTheEarth
In collaboration with Keio university, Safecast helped deploy approximately 300 radiation sensors across Japan as part of the Scanning the Earth project. The data was broadcast in realtime to a dedicated server hosted at Keio University. Softbank/Yahoo, which sponsored the project, shared the data for each location on Yahoo Japan on a dedicated webpage (“Radiation Forecast”). This page was regrettably discontinued in 2014, although the network itself remains up and running. One of the limitations of this network is that the sensors are located non-uniformly inside Softbank stores, often in a back room or a closet, and not outdoors, where they would have been more relevant from Safecast’s point of view. The realtime.safecast.org project is building on the experience from this project, and is focused on outdoor sensors and broader community to support the sensors.
1.4 Air Pollution Measurement
While the primary focus of Safecast has been radiation measurements, we’ve always intended for the project to grow to include other environmental data. At first glance, air quality has many similarities to the concerns that attracted us to radiation. It’s generally invisible, and except in the worst cases one usually can’t just look outside and see it. Most importantly, no clear, reliable source of data accessible by everyone is available, and the data that can be found is often opaque and vague. With radiation we are measuring just one thing, but air quality in a much broader concept, and means many things to different people. Something that is a pollution concern in one city might not be in another, and this has led to much discussion and the constant question of what aspects of air quality are most important to measure, and for what purposes.
Also, unlike for radiation where there is a clear consensus about which sensors generate reliable data, air monitors are much more diverse and tend to be much less reliable. We’ve spent a significant amount of time and money trying to find and calibratable sensors that produce consistent measurements. At SCC2015 we are showing off a modular Safecast Air Quality prototype produced in conjunction with Pasadena based IO Rodeo. This device is based on the bGeigie form factor, and eventually could be fused with other sensors.
Additionally, we’ve been collaborating with the EDF, NRDC, MIT Media Lab, and Google on air sensors. Particulate pollution, specifically PM2.5, is of global interest and methane, a core greenhouse gas, is an important gas to quantify when considering climate issues. Future Safecast Air devices will likely monitor both of these.
1.5 Open Data (aka The Safecast API)
SAFECAST tries to set an example of openness in how we gather and present our data, and to demonstrate what the wider benefits of easy access to open data are for society as a whole. It’s not just a matter of principle, but also one of pragmatism and practicality: we’re convinced that the more open data is, the more useful it becomes.
Making everything openly available makes it easy for technically knowledgeable people to investigate our data and test its trustworthiness, and encourages many people to participate. We designed our system and our openness policies with demanding people and skeptics in mind. We wish this were the case for everyone publishing independent radiation data (or any data, for that matter), but it’s not. There’s no reason for the public to consider “independent” data more trustworthy than “official” data unless the people publishing it can demonstrate that it’s technically comparable and also more transparent and free of possible bias. We encourage others to start with the assumption that their data cannot be considered trustworthy unless it can be easily and anonymously accessed by others and put to demanding analytical tests.
“Openness” is not something that can be easily added later, but needs to be integrated into the data collection system from the start, including insuring that there’s a consensus among all the participants that it’s a major priority. An open system doesn’t have to cost more than one that’s not, but it does require careful consideration and planning.
We recently posted a detailed FAQ about our openness and data access features:
http://blog.safecast.org/faq/openness-and-data-access/
1.6 Data Visualization
1.6.1 Maps
Over the last year the online Safecast map has seen a tremendous amount of evolution and improvement. Initially developed to create a basic visualization of aggregated drive data collected by mobile radiation sensors, the Safecast map now features:
- Multi layers allowing different data sets to be superimposed
- Ability to contrast individual drives with the overall radiation map. This is a great tool for volunteers to see their own drives in contract what others have measured
- Ability to compare current and past data sets
- See individual data points at any location
- Sophisticated interpolation algorithms to better show levels at any zoom level (far exceeding basic mapping tools offered by Google and the like)
- Display of realtime sensors
- High performance rendering
- Street view
- Various external data sets to compare with the Safecast data set
1.6.2 Apps
iOS and OSX
For iOS devices, version 1.7.1 of the Safecast app was released in 2014. This version notably included best-in-class gamma spectroscopy DSP (for scintillation counters) courtesy of Marek Dolleiser, from the renown PRA application for Windows. Ratemeter smoothing, significant energy consumption improvements, and an oscilloscope were also added. App settings also received extensive inline documentation for assisting users with Geiger and scintillation counter calibration.
The Safecast app for OS X was also introduced, based upon the tile engine used by the mapping features of the iOS app. In addition to providing a full desktop experience with the same dynamic and offline-capable functionality, the key feature of the Safecast OS X was exporting any layer or layers to web map PNG tiles quickly and efficiently, which paved the way for the new Safecast webmap. High performance was maintained by translating the ARM NEON SIMD intrinsics backend of the tile engine to Intel SSE. PNG tile creation was also heavily optimized and multithreaded, resulting in fast tile creation and small filesizes that did not need to be pngcrushed.
Current development work is focused on unifying the codebases of the iOS and OS X apps, and porting tile engine code from Objective C to ANSI C for multiplatform capabilities and an open-source release. While in most cases this entails a complete code rewrite, there are benefits being realized in doing so, such as update tiling times of less than 10 seconds, an order of magnitude performance improvement to real-time IDW interpolation, and more. Open-source spinoffs from these efforts have been released on Github already — Retile and bitstore.js.
The Safecast app for OS X allowed for the creation of web map tiles, and this created the opportunity to have an up-to-date webmap once again. Thanks to hosting efforts by Joi Ito and the MIT Media Lab, automated daily updates are now provided. With an interpolation layer developed by Lionel Bergeret, a realtime sensor layer by Kalin Kozhuharov, and a newly added bGeigie log viewer, the Safecast webmap has grown in both content and capabilities, with more on the way.
iOS maps
This year saw aggressive performance optimizations and the introduction of real-time IDW interpolation to the iOS app. Leveraging the fact the app stores data values rather than RGB colors, this allows for always-up-to-date interpolations of the Safecast dataset. The “see changes” layer operation was also significantly improved, providing literal highlights around new or updated data points since the last update.
Some additional features have already been developed for the next release.
The basemap tile layer has been rewritten, and features best-match tile finding capabilities for much more practical offline use. Further, the performance of basemap network I/O and image processing have been significantly improved.
The data layers received some updates to the resampling code that both improves spatial accuracy and the masking used when the layer is resampled. Currently, all NODATA-masking is performed using nearest neighbor, and thus looks blocky. By using a thresholded Lanczos bitmask, the result is smoother contours that remain true to the original data points. A preliminary version of this is currently being used to render the non-interpolated Safecast webmap tiles for zoom levels 14–17.
1.7 Activities
From the start, we’ve considered events and activities to be an important part of communicating what we are doing, building our community, and training our volunteers. We frequently hold workshops, hold hackathons, give talks, and participate in public symposia. A few highlights from the past year have been:
bGeigie Workshops
We held quite a few bGeigie Nano building workshops in the past year, in Tokyo and Koriyama (Fukushima) in Japan, as well as in Washington DC, Cambridge, Taipei, and Strasbourg. Plans for workshops to be held this year are currently being made for Santa Monica, San Diego, and Berlin.
Hackathons
We held several hackathons in the past year as well, mainly in Tokyo, primarily to work on API and web issues.
Events and Talks
Safecast gets frequent requests to speak at public and private events, for groups of various sizes. In the past year these have included a Gartner keynote and presentation to corporate leaders at CSLP, talks to students at International Christian University and Temple University Japan, in addition to a fundraiser, all in Tokyo. We also held an auction fundraiser in Los Angeles, and a closed presentation at Lincoln Labs at MIT. Many others are planned for 2015, including the Hills Summer Kids’ Workshop program, for 5000 children, produced by the Mori Building Company in Tokyo.
Symposia etc,
We were happy to be invited to speak at important symposia in Japan and overseas, including an IAEA expert meeting and a disarmament and non-proliferation conference at the VCDNP, both in Vienna, and a public symposium in Tokyo jointly organized by United Nations University and UNSCEAR.
1.8 Outreach
We consider outreach and collaboration with universities and other academic institutions to be valuable community and skill builders. Ongoing and new collaborations include ones with MIT Media Lab, Keio University, Aoyama University, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, and San Diego State University.
1.9 Press & Publicity
The Safecast project emerged from the possibilities of the internet age and “runs” on a fabric of social media, the cloud, chat rooms, Slack, etc. Safecast does not spend any resources on advertising, relying instead on word of mouth. However we do get coverage from various types of media regularly, and we see these as endorsement that what we do remains relevant. Over the past years we have been featured, mentioned, or covered in over 150 media publications — printed press, books, TV, blogs, online, etc.
Contributing to media is a significant activity for Safecast, as it allows our message to be propagated to a larger audience and also helps us to connect to new volunteers. Not only do we appear in articles, we also have become a go-to source for journalists who want to learn about radiation and scientific findings relate to the Fukushima disaster, and we have spent countless hours with reporters to share what we know and connect them with relevant people and organizations. We often accompany reporters into the field. We rarely seek coverage, however, and generally wait to be approached. When we feel information could be more accurately and informatively represented, though, we’re not shy about reaching out to journalists with more reliable information as well.
Though we have historically gotten more media coverage outside of Japan than inside, over the past year Safecast has been well-covered by mainstream media in Japan. There are too many to mention, but we would like to highlight a few recent media appearances.
Recent Highlights:
- Mar 2015 — WDR (German public TV)
- Feb 2015 — NHK (E) — Joi Ito’s TED talk was aired on Japan’s national TV (NHK Super Presentation)
- Feb 2015 — NHK World aired a 30 minute special about Safecast made by documentarian Michael Goldberg as part of their “XYZ” series
- Feb 2015 — Asahi Shimbun (one of the top four newspapers in Japan) published a 20-article series about Safecast as part of the Prometheus Trap column.
- 2014 — South China Morning Post — Hong Kong’s largest newspaper, wrote about the relatively higher radiation levels in HK versus Tokyo as measured by Safecast.
- Mar 2014 — NHK World News presented a 5-minute feature about Safecast’s activity in Fukushima
Good Design Award
In 2013 Safecast received the Good Design Award for the Safecast Project as a whole. The Good Design Award is Japan’s most prestigious award for what is deemed the leading edge in industrial design.
1.10 Funding & Support
NPO Status & Advisory Board
Safecast is a registered, US based non profit organization. Over the last year we have begun to set up an advisory board.
In addition to the US organization, there are plans to register Safecast as an NPO in Japan and Europe over the coming year to increase scope and outreach.
Shuttleworth Foundation
Sean Bonner was awarded a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship for the year 2014–2015 which, in addition to being a wonderful braintrust and support group, has provided funds to allow us to do the following:
- Stationary Sensors Project (nGeigie) — 25 sensors to be deployed in Fukushima over the coming 3 months
- Visualization — continuation of development of the Safecast maps and apps
- We now have new Makerbot Replicators and an Other Machine Other Mills in both Tokyo and Los Angeles, allowing us to speed up prototyping and share designs globally. We can have an idea in Tokyo, design a circuit board and case for it, and then simultaneously make exact copies in Tokyo and Los Angeles for testing purposes. This ability trims days and weeks from our design runway.
- The Safecast Conference 2015 was also made possible by Shuttleworth, and enabled us to bring many collaborators to Tokyo from overseas.
The Knight Foundation
Between 2011 and 2013, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation was the primary funder for Safecast, awarding us several grants to aid with many different aspects of the Safecast mission.
Contributions in kind
We would like to thank the following companies for offering us help with our office, discounted equipment and services:
- Loftwork
- Medcom International
- Slack
- Adafruit
- Sparkfun
- Pelican Case
- Kromek (Safecast 6D)
1.11 Always Improving
Safecast is the work of volunteers, and is by no means “finished”, “perfect” or “the final word”. Some would say it’s nothing to boast about — lots of work to do! There’s plenty of room for improvement and “wouldn’t-it-be-nice-ifs.” This applies to the Safecast Report as well. The information provided here represents the best data we have found, and the best of our understanding and knowledge, but, as a Dutch proverb goes, “Don’t skate over one-night ice.” We encourage readers and volunteers to check the data and information themselves and form their own opinions about the environment we’re living in. “Is it safe?” is a question whose answer differs from individual to individual. Our daily lives are full of risks, but we shouldn’t let that paralyze us. However, being aware will hopefully allow us to make better decisions, and to focus our individual actions to better improve our environment and our lives.
If you see anything you think could be done better, needs fixing, or can be complemented, or if you simply want to help out or to contribute, let us know.
And if you want to learn how to make your data open and more useable (as a citizen, company, university, or government body), we’re here to help.
Get in touch: info@safecast.org and @safecast on twitter
(and if we don’t get back to you quickly enough, please read the previous sections to understand why!)
TO OTHER SECTIONS:
Part 1: SAFECAST PROJECT
2.1- Issues at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Powerplant (FDNPP)
