Twitter Helps Monitor Backup Power Sources in Japan

A Twitter API developed by the National Instruments Community is being used byengineers in Japan to cope with rolling power outages resulting from theaftermath of the recent tsunami.

With unscheduled blackouts lastingseveral hours, engineers have often been unable to run continuous tests andretain experiment consistency without the fear of running out of power.

Naoki Hoshino, a test engineer atPeritec in Japan, built the original application using LabVIEW and a NationalInstruments (NI) USB data acquisition (DAQ) device to monitor battery levelsand display the voltages of his backup power source.

He then used a Twitter API and code hefound on the NI Community to measure and post the results through Twitter toshare the information with his coworkers. By sharing the data, Hoshino ishelping the team better anticipate when backup batteries should be replaced toavoid test interruptions.

In one tweet, Hoshino explained the electricitywould go out for three hours a day in his area of Japan, so they wanted to beready for the rolling blackouts. He has continued to tweet that his app continues to solve the issue ofmonitoring the backup battery power through the outages, so he plans tocontinue using it to keep those in need updated.

Click here to watch a videoof the application in action.