Communications of the ACM
Smart Phones Could Be sed to Detect Earthquakes
Researchers have found it is possible to use the global-positioning systems built into smartphone handsets to detect underground tremors.
Credit: Matthew M. Bradley/U.S. Navy
Researchers have demonstrated it is possible to use smartphone global-positioning system (GPS) data to detect tremors in the Earth, potentially providing an early warning system for earthquakes.
The new study found even consumer devices with GPS capabilities could be useful for crowdsourcing warnings. In addition, as more devices integrate GPS navigation, increasing amounts of data could improve the sensitivity of such systems, according to the researchers.
They measured the accuracy of smartphone GPS technology by shaking a phone and comparing its recorded displacements with a more accurate scientific device. The researchers found consumer GPS devices could detect earthquakes of magnitude 7 and above, enabling them to be used to warn people located away from the epicenter of the most destructive quakes.
The researchers tested the idea using a computer simulation of a magnitude 7 earthquake near Oakland, CA. As part of the simulation, an earthquake triggers a phone if it and four neighboring devices all record simultaneous movements greater than five centimeters. Assuming data from 0.2 percent of the population, which amounts to about 5,000 people, the system was able to detect the simulated earthquake within five seconds.
From Science
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