Slashdot Mirror
Smartphones May Soon Provide Earthquake Warnings (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: When it comes to an earthquake, just a few seconds' warning could make the difference between life and death. But many earthquake-prone countries lack the seismic networks that would give their citizens the lead time to find cover or shut down critical utilities. Now, a group of enterprising engineers is looking at a substitute network: smartphones. Using smartphones' built-in accelerometers, researchers have invented an app, released today, that they say can detect strong earthquakes seconds before the damaging seismic waves arrive. MyShake, as the app is called, could become the basis for an earthquake warning system for the world's most vulnerable regions.
Most of the public buildings in Mexico have had "alerta sísmica" for well over five years already (don't remember how long). Last year, a large-scale rollout was made so there are audible alert boxes all over the city. Of course, we are lucky to be ~500Km away from most of the tectonically active locations in our region, while unlucky enough to be sitting atop one of the most "interesting" soils for seismic activity amplification... So it's a very unique combination!
This is nothing new. There apps that already do this. For instance, this one does it and it's not called MyShake. And I bet there are many more apps that do exactly the same thing if you just look for them.
We get alerts on our cell phones with at most a couple of seconds' warning. In theory that gives you time to duck under a desk or into a doorway. In practice it's always been: Beep! What the fuck is that? Earthquake!
My wife was at the conference where this was unveiled and she came home excited about it. When we went to install it on our phones, though, we discovered it requested a surprising array of permissions that you wouldn't think it would need, like information about your contacts list. I think I'll hold off till they scale that back to something more reasonable.
Stop learning! Only you can prevent esoterrorism.
We get this question quite a bit in the Bay Area. Here are the common responses:
Public: Citizens, including schoolchildren, drop, cover, and hold on; turn off stoves, safely stop vehicles.
Businesses: Personnel move to safe locations, automated systems ensure elevators doors open, production lines are shut down, sensitive equipment is placed in a safe mode.
Medical services: Surgeons, dentists, and others stop delicate procedures.
Emergency responders: Open firehouse doors, personnel prepare and prioritize response decisions.
Power infrastructure: Protect power stations and grid facilities from strong shaking.
For more: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/res...
Beware of the Leopard.