Getting Smart with Road Repair

Stop the lockdown in Beijing!
Stop the lockdown in China!

People in China have had enough.

Many poured into the streets to express their anger at the government's zero-Covid policy.

Some protestors even openly criticized President Xi Jinping.

No lockdown! We want freedom!

Xi Jinping, step down!

With coronavirus infections at record levels, authorities in the country have been keeping tight restrictions in place.

That's fueled public frustration and added to the economic pain.

Shanghai Disneyland re-opened to visitors near the end of last month, but closed again only a few days later.

Many manufacturers, including global automakers Honda and Volkswagen, were forced to halt Chinese production in recent days.

Violent protests broke out at the world's biggest iPhone factory in the city of Zhengzhou.

Employees fed up with unfavorable working conditions appeared to clash with security personnel.

Analysts say this could further slow shipments of some of the latest iPhones.

Apple's high-end models are reportedly already out of stock in many shops across the United States.

The rising unrest in China is threatening to upend an already fragile global economy.

Uncertainty about Chinese energy demand was one factor pushing down US oil prices to a year's low, at one point this week.

Higher energy costs have been the main source of global inflation.

A significant slowdown in the world's second-largest economy could change that dynamic.

It may even affect policy at the US Federal Reserve, which has been aggressively raising interest rates.

A tail-off of inflation could prompt the Fed to slow its pace of increases.

Its chair, Jerome Powell, touched on the situation in China at a recent conference.

"To the extent that China is having shutdowns in the parts of the country, in the parts of the economy that are deeply connected to the global supply chains—

that's going to make those supply chains less efficient, less effective."

With Beijing struggling to keep the Chinese economy on a growth path, many are asking if it's finally time for the government to abandon Zero-Covid.

An expert says it won't.

"The government will never say it is scrapping Zero-Covid, simply because it's President Xi Jinping's signature policy.

It may gradually ease restrictions, but not drastically."

On Wednesday, a top official hinted at a softer approach: vice-premier Sun Chunlan told public health experts,

"China faces a new situation, as the strength of the Omicron variant weakens."

Authorities partially lifted temporary lockdowns in some cities, including Guangzhou.

Signs of recession are already starting to appear in many countries, due to the rapid increase in interest rates to control inflation.

It remains to be seen whether China will become another downside risk for the global economy.

Fall is the most popular season for sightseeing in the city of Kyoto.

Tourists flock there to see its historic landmarks surrounded by foliage.

I'm at Nijo-jo, a castle with deep ties to the Tokugawa Shogunate.

This world heritage site has always been popular with tourists, but now, it's gathering crowds even at night.

The reason: the castle comes to life after dark.

Nijo-jo held a night-time digital art event, from the end of October to the beginning of December.

"Ooooh!"

Projection mapping lights up the venue.

A phoenix, that's a significant feature of this historic gate, makes a magnificent entrance.

It was so beautiful! It was worth traveling a long way for this.

An innovate feature of the event is a metaverse version of the castle.

By jazzing up the historic site and making virtual tours accessible from anywhere, Kyoto hopes to encourage people around the world to visit the city in person...

but not like in the past.

Kyoto attracted over 50 million people annually before the pandemic.

However, visitors tended to choose the same places, and visit at the same time: during the day.

A city official says the event aims to disperse crowds by focusing on a different time.

By promoting tourism at night, we can reduce daytime congestion.

He adds that the event spotlights over 20 landmarks in and around the city, encouraging visitors to spread out.

One attraction that stands out is Heian Jingu.

The shrine also has projection mapping, but the art is interactive, so can only be experienced by visiting the venue in person.

The key is personalized interaction: tourists can have their names shown on a shrine building.

There's mine: Marie!

Seeing my name on such a historic structure, I feel humbled...

I'm also very happy!

The metaverse version also offers a personalized experience to visitors of the real Heian Jingu.

This virtual fashion show can become immersive!

How?

Choose a kimono of your liking, add an obi belt,

take a selfie, and...

Voila!

An avatar with your face will strut the catwalk like a model.

This is me!

By offering a virtual introduction to nighttime Kyoto, the city hopes to boost its tourist numbers, without making its historic streets any more clogged than they already are.

Yanaka Marie, NHK World.

Searching for road damage while on the move, and hundreds of volunteers happily hunting for...

manholes?

Both of these activities are using smartphones to inspect Japan's aging roads.

Today's On-Site Report shows how advances in technology have made smartphones a key tool in keeping Japan's aging infrastructure safe and secure.

The only tool this road inspection vehicle is equipped with, as it patrols some of Tokyo's busiest streets, is a single smartphone mounted on the dash.

It's using a proprietary application called "Road Manager."

This software allows for detailed road inspections to be done without stopping.

The green boxes you see on the screen highlight areas where road damage has been found.

When the smartphone's AI-driven software detects cracks in the road, it sends an image along with other information to a cloud-based data management system.

Even while in motion, the AI is able to detect cracks and fishers as small as 5 mm in width.

The system can also detect fading or damage to white or yellow lines, and other road markings.

Until now, road inspections were usually carried out in one of two ways.

The first method involved relying on the trained eyes of an inspection team.

However, because they need to stop to examine and log any damage manually, this method can only cover about 15 km of road per day.

The other method, using a specialized inspection vehicle, though highly accurate, is extremely expensive.

With usage fees costing over $75,000 per multi-day inspection, the city of Shinagawa would only agree to using it once every 5 years.

The "Road Manager" system, however, can be used in almost any vehicle and includes hardware, software, and analytic services for an annual fee of around $7,500.

Not only is it accurate and budget-friendly, but because the vehicle doesn't have to stop, the system can inspect up to 40 km of road per day.

Maeda Hiroya's company developed the "Road Manager" system.

While in university, he focused his studies on infrastructure inspection software.

With over a million kilometers of road, there's no way we can keep track of it the old-fashioned way.

Including his time in university, Maeda has collected over 5 million images of road damage, while working with local governments across Japan.

Using deep-learning to analyze the massive catalogue of images, he created a highly accurate damage recognition system.

The wave-form displays a visual representation of road damage, while the numerical classification indicates the severity.

In addition, the system can take the images gathered by the front-facing smartphone camera, and convert them into a bird's eye view image, that allows them to accurately determine

the size, scale, and orientation of any road damage detected.

After finishing an inspection route, team members head back to headquarters to go over the results.

The stretches of road that were checked today are shown with a thick blue line.

The number displayed indicates the total number of damaged sections detected.

Today's inspection resulted in the discovery and logging of 4,100 cases of road damage.

The system's AI then classifies these cases into one of 7 different types of damage; such as "potholes", which can be hazardous to drivers,

and "fatigue cracks," which can deteriorate further, leading to large-scale damage.

The AI system uses a scale ranging from 0 to 1, to indicate the level of damage discovered, with 1 being the most severe.

According to Shinagawa city regulations, potholes at or above 0.6, and fatigue cracks at or above 0.7 in severity, should be designated for repair.

Of the 4,100 instances of damage detected, 9 reached or surpassed this threshold.

By clicking on a damage icon, the exact location is displayed, along with a still image of it that was taken during inspection.

A team is then sent out to conduct a more detailed inspection of areas designated for repair.

In most instances, the roadwork is completed within 2 weeks of initial detection.

Our predecessors built these roads for us one or two generations ago, so now it's our job to make sure we maintain them.

This man isn't lost, he's taking photos of manhole covers.

And he's not alone, a large group of people are combing the streets in search of them!

Excuse me, what are you doing?

This is a local event where we take photos of as many manholes as we can.

Today's event is being held in Okazaki City.

Participants have been asked to take photos of manholes across a section of the city, that runs approximately 10 km north to south, and 4 km east to west.

A specially-made "manhole hunting application" shows users locations that have to be checked.

In the area being covered today, 20,000 manholes have yet to be logged.

When a user uploads a photo to the app, its color changes to show it has been recorded.

With over 560 participants, event organizers hope that all 20,000 manholes can be photo-logged in just 2 days.

I'm on a diet and trying to get out as much as I can.

It's fun to go around to different cities and regions, and see the various designs they have on their manhole covers.

I really want to come in first place, so I am hoping to get over 1,000 photos.

Attracted by the fun, competitive style of the event, some participants came from as far away as Tokyo.

The top photo takers are ranked, and many participants are rewarded with gift certificates and other prizes.

The event was organized by Hayashi Satoru.

He works for a manhole manufacturer, and came up with idea of creating a smartphone game to help keep track of aging manholes.

There are so many them out there, there's no way we could check them all in a reasonable amount of time.

So, I thought maybe there's a way we could get members of the public to lend us a hand in getting the job done as quickly as possible.

In addition to the game, Hayashi is also working on developing an AI-based damage assessment program.

It can take a photo of any manhole and instantly determine which of 21 different conditions apply to it.

Being able to handle the whole process on a single device really smooths everything out.

I also think it will help increase our accuracy.

Hayashi hopes that by using this system, in conjunction with the manhole hunting events, his company will be able to carry out necessary repairs faster than ever before.

Naturally, since we make manhole covers, we're always going to want to find and meet demand, wherever we can.

Back in Okazaki, the hunt is just coming to an end.

How many did you get today?

Let's see... in total, 832!

While I didn't quite reach my goal, I'm really happy I could come down here and do something positive for this community.

In just 2 days, the participants succeeded in photographing all 20,000 manholes.

I think there are still quite a few manhole covers here that need replacing, so these photos will help us to make sure that we get the job done.