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Turning the Optical Fiber Network Into a Giant Earthquake Sensor (ieee.org)

Posted by msmash on from the in-quest-of-eureka dept.

Tekla Perry writes: Researchers at Stanford have demonstrated that they can use ordinary, underground fiber optic cables to monitor for earthquakes, by using innate impurities in the fiber as virtual sensors. "People didn't believe this would work," said one of the researchers. "They always assumed that an uncoupled optical fiber would generate too much signal noise to be useful." They plan a larger test installation in 2018. Their biggest challenge, they say, will not be perfecting the algorithms but rather convincing telcos to allow the technology to piggyback on existing telecommunications lines. Meanwhile, the same data is being used for an art project that visualizes the activity of pedestrians, bicycles, cars, and fountains on the surface above the cables.

15 comments

  1. Sounds rather needless by sunking2 · · Score: 1

    If its a giant earthquake I'm sure its been detected by other means.

    1. Re:Sounds rather needless by skids · · Score: 1

      Like this?

      https://newatlas.com/laptop-ac... ...but I think the point here, if you RTFA, is that a fiber constitutes about one sensor every meter, so you get a whole lot of resolution for some pretty damn inexpensive spare glass, and this will allow scientific study of wave propagation at a greater level of detail than ever before possible.

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      Someone had to do it.
  2. It can hear your footsteps by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    Meanwhile, the same data is being used for an art project that visualizes the activity of pedestrians, bicycles, cars, and fountains on the surface above the cables.

    It's probably already being used for surveillance.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:It can hear your footsteps by fazig · · Score: 1

      It certainly can be used that way. We've had a very similar project in the lab I'm working in. Fibre-optics embedded in roads and bridges using Bragg gratings to measure the magnitude by which the fibre is stretched or clinched in all three dimensions. Of course this also means that it can be used as a microphone to some degree and also as a thermometer. The principle is sound and at least in this configuration offers some accuracy.

    2. Re: It can hear your footsteps by Ebsolas · · Score: 1

      Yeah... Ivan already tell this is going to be another one of those things I'm not going to want to think about. Same as Facebook, the NSA, and whatever hotdogs are made of.

    3. Re:It can hear your footsteps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sting saw this coming
      Oh, can't you see
      You belong to me
      How my poor heart aches with every step you take

      Every move you make
      Every vow you break
      Every smile you fake
      Every claim you stake
      I'll be watching you

  3. Same Solution as Always... by EndlessNameless · · Score: 1

    Their biggest challenge, they say, will not be perfecting the algorithms but rather convincing telcos to allow the technology to piggyback on existing telecommunications lines.

    Telecoms will suddenly become very interested if government agencies responsible for emergency response or geological surveys showed up with cash in hand.

    Or the FCC could mandate it. We already give the telcos in this country enough.

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    According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
    1. Re:Same Solution as Always... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NSA would not be too happy if people could see when they tap fiber lines.

  4. Really, Slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How is this "news for nerds, stuff that..."

    Oh, uh, okay. Good job.

  5. too much signal to noise... by phayes · · Score: 1

    Really? _too_much_ signal and not enough noise is a problem?

    Who is it that thinks that?

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    Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
    1. Re:too much signal to noise... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who is it that thinks that?

      Nobody, because you didn't read carefully enough. Your subject (don't do that) says:

      too much signal to noise...

      The blurb says:

      too much signal noise

      Two entirely different things.

  6. That is part of the claims in my patent# 5,825516 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Optical power meter for detecting loss factors in fiber optic communications". With a sensitive optical power you can detect all kinds of vibrations like an earthquake, which I specifically mention. Real-time measurements are the focus of my patent. Like security intrusions of tapping into a fiber without breaking the connection.
    Filed: July 25, 1996 Granted: Oct 20, 1998 It will expire soon. P.J.W.