CHAPTER 10
Common questions are collected here. Each answer links to the chapter with the full explanation.
No. Footage is not streamed; it is stored at each streetlight. Only the few seconds needed are retrieved, after an incident or disappearance. One search for a missing child takes about 100 MB, which an inexpensive link can handle.
The estimate is about 1–2 W per streetlight, or about ¥400 per light per year in electricity.
Most streetlights in Japanese residential areas have power at all times and switch on and off with a light sensor in each luminaire. Where power is supplied only at night, a battery of about two smartphones' capacity covers the daytime.
Units use smartphone-grade parts costing about US$100, with enough redundancy that the whole keeps working even if more than one in ten units has failed. Software updates automatically, and stopped units restart automatically.
In residential streets it is enough to follow people from camera to camera by clothing, build and belongings. High-resolution cameras at key locations record faces and number plates for identification. Performance at night and in crowds will be verified in pilots.
If the entrances and exits of camera-free sections (such as junctions) are covered, the route can be linked by time. If someone enters a park and does not come out, the search is narrowed to that park.
Images are encrypted inside the unit, so they cannot be read even if removed. Tampering, covering and removal are detected and reported.
That concern is central to this concept. That is exactly why pilots combined with VRAIO are needed to find out how residents actually feel. At the same time, we believe an environment where children can play outside safely on their own brings great reassurance.
No. Only after a request based on the rules has been recorded by an independent Recorder. Every viewed image is recorded individually and audited.
Most tracking cameras are low resolution, but faces and number plates are recorded clearly at key locations. Privacy is protected not by lowering image quality but by governing outputs (VRAIO).
The municipality operates the system and manages the keys; the police are requesters. One approach is to require a warrant normally, with every retrieval recorded and audited. The specific rules are for society to decide.
This is the most important question. We are studying designs that protect by structure, not only by rules: physical constraints in the units, distributed keys and records, and recording and publishing rule changes.
FMPS covers public space. Looking inside private property is not its purpose.
We believe national legislation is needed for full-scale introduction. Limited pilots can be carried out within existing data-protection law and municipal ordinances and guidelines.
That is for society to decide. Options include streetlight-renewal budgets, national subsidies and joint funding with public-safety authorities.
With pilots limited in area, period and purpose — for example, school routes or a limited residential district — with advance explanation, independent ethical review, audits, a complaints desk and shutdown criteria.
The prototype has run. The e-JIKEI Net Camera field trials in Kiryu City implemented encrypted storage, viewing permission issued by a recording server, and public disclosure of every viewing. A system integrating FMPS and VRAIO at streetlight scale has not yet been built. The concept and institutional design have been published in papers; the next stage is prototyping and pilots at streetlight scale.
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FMPS + VRAIO: Public-safety infrastructure built on streetlights, and the governance of AI outputs | Yusaku Fujii (Gunma University) and NPO e-JIKEI Network Promotion Institute
This site presents a research-stage concept; all figures are estimates.