Smartphone can alert users to earthquakes

A new app developed by U.S. scientists can turn your smartphone into an quake sensor and potentially save lives. "We wanted an app that could collect the data needed, but wouldn't lock up the phone, or use up all the phone's memory, or burn out a battery, any of which would cause people not to use it".

Developed by UC Berkeley and the Telekom Innovation Laboratories in Silicon Valley, the MyShake application taps into a smartphone's ability to record ground shaking from an natural disaster, with the goal of creating a worldwide seismic detection network that could eventually warn users of impending jolts from nearby quakes. An iPhone app is also planned. "These countries now have either only a sparse ground-based seismic network or early warning system, or none at all - but do have millions of smartphone users".

"Smartphones are fantastic. And they're cheap, and they're ubiquitous", Minson said. The software helps the phone to detect vibrations from quakes with magnitude 5 and greater.

Allen is also part of a larger team of scientists building a $38 million system along the West Coast that will provide early warnings before the worst shaking from an natural disaster arrives. Dubbed as MyShake, the earthquake-detector app is now available in the Google Play Store.

"Currently, we have a network of 400 seismic stations in California, one of the densest in the world", Allen said.

The app will continuingly test every motion the phone experiences to see if it fits the profile of an quake.

Through ages, science has been trying to develop a technology to detect natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and other geological processes.

In the future, Allen envisions a more integrated network that might only require one or two ground sensors to detect an natural disaster, and confirmation from cellphones to trigger an alert faster than the current system of relying on four traditional sensors.

Allen said simulations suggest they will need 300 users in a 1,000 square kilometer area to get good data from that quake. "There are many countries around the world that are very natural disaster prone, but have very few seismic stations", says Allen. "The system triggered rapidly and accurately, and that's really given us the confidence to now take MyShake out to the public for its big, real test", Richard Allen, director of Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, said.

Villanova stays No. 1 in AP poll; Kansas secondAny concerns of a letdown coming from No. 10 West Virginia on Saturday against Big 12 bottom-feeder TCU were quickly dismissed. Ingram ended the game tied with Allen's seven rebounds, three behind Plumlee's game high 10.

Source: Smartphone can alert users to earthquakes