the prototype app uses
the accelerometer present in the devices to act as a basic seismometer, which
is used to detect the vibrations from earthquakes.
Developed by a team from
the Californian Institute of Technology (Caltech), Crowd Shake by passes the
need for external plug-ins.
Many residents of the
Pasadena community, a small city within Los Angeles, currently use small
seismometers plugged into their PCs or routers to detect tremors.
One challenge the team
faces in the use of smartphones as detection agents is differentiating between
earthquake vibrations and normal movement.
Richard Guy, part of the
team that created CrowdShake said the devices are an "extraordinarily
attractive" agent for monitoring earthquakes.
If there are just enough
[phones] that are stationary, which could be a very small percentage, from that
we can determine 'OK, an earthquake is under way and this is how intense it was
at a certain point'," he told the BBC.
"Then the receiving
phone says, 'Well, I know where I am, I know where it started, I know the time
difference between when the event began, I know what time it is now, my little
phone app can calculate very, very simply in just a few milliseconds, this is
how bad I think it's going to be where I am right now.'
"It can then provide
... an alert to this user saying: 'You have so many seconds before a damaging
wave will arrive'," he added.
Full-scale implementation
of the app across California is unlikely without government involvement, given
the risk of injury from a false alarm, said Mr Guy.
California's location on
the San Andreas Fault makes it vulnerable to large and frequent earthquakes. In
the 'Great Quake' of 1906, over 3,000 died after a quake measuring 7.8 on the
Richter scale devastated San Francisco.
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