A tsunami simulation game is being developed in Japan

A tsunami simulation game is being developed in the Japanese city of Akita to help people survive a killer wave.

As memories of the last tsunami disaster are slowly fading, the Japanese population living in danger zones should be sensitised again. But how do you explain to the population, including children and the elderly, how they should react in the event of a tsunami in the most impressive and sustainable way possible? The hazard maps currently used in Japan are particularly unsuitable for children and the elderly. Older people in particular can barely read the small letters and the maps are not very exciting for children.

The city administration of Kamakura has therefore had a tsunami wave simulation made, which can be viewed as a video. The video combines actual street images with computer-generated images of a tsunami. It has been viewed 360,000 times on YouTube since April 2016.

That is one solution. However, the city of Akita is going one step further and wants to use a 3D virtual reality system to get the message across to as many residents as possible. For this reason, the operation should also be as simplified as possible. Users of the VR system can control the video like a normal game and experience the escape from the tsunami up close.

Akita hopes that the 3D virtual reality system can be used in practice from 2019. However, it has not yet been announced whether players will also have to use VR goggles or how it will work. In order to have the system developed, the city council has included 29.68 million yen (around 226,695 euros) in the first general budget bill for the 2018 financial year.

The planned distribution is somewhat surprising, as the Akita system will only be available on three laptops. One of these laptops will be housed in a public facility in the Tsuchizaki district. Interested users can test the system there. The other two devices will be lent to schools and venues for disaster drills and workshops. There will therefore be no video published on a website. It remains to be seen how many people will be reached in this way.

Source: sumikai