Smartphones will only get smarter and smarter. The smartphone era may never come to an end and every new smartphone that is revealed each day will only outsmart the previous models. There’s actually no limit to what people can do with every phone model. In the near future, it could even replace computers as a full workhorse in schools, businesses, or the offices because of its portability, usability, and convenience.
In countries where earthquakes often happen, it’s important that people are given early warnings to prepare them for possible calamity. Not all earthquakes can be destructive but it’s always better to be prepared. Warnings can help save lives especially in developing countries where resources are limited. You see, warning instruments get updated too so it’s necessary for earthquake warning centers to upgrade their tools regularly.
One gadget that can easily be used as a location sensor is the smartphone. Using just one won’t he helpful but a bunch of them will be able to gather necessary data. A recent Science Advances’ study says that a network of cellphones reporting might replace modern seismograph arrays.
The particular study has analyzed smartphone hardware and historical earthquake data and the result is a map of smartphone-based earthquake detector. This depends on GPS to work on an early warning system that can likely project how strong the earthquake is and where it is coming from. Once a signal is detected, citizens are sent an early warning.
This kind of eartquake detection system will be ideal for poorer countries who can’t afford hi-tech seismograph-based systems. It may not be as accurate or as scientific but it could help because smartphones have GPS, acceletometer, and several data connections. Developing countries also boast of having a lot of smartphone owners so it’s best to take advantage of them.
The system may be low in quality but it can make up in quantity. Imagine millions of cellphones serving as earthquake sensors, they could very well pick up geological shifts. No real data exist yet but researchers were able to analyze old data from 462 GPS-based earthquake sensors in Japan based on the Tohoku earthquake in 2011. The researchers removed data until the readings were similar to the readings by accelerometers and GPS. Set was noisier but they can still detect an earthquake.
Cellphone observations of earthquakes? It’s quite possible in the near future what with all the apps, GPS, other sensors and the large quantity of smartphones nowadays but further testing and analysis must still be done by researchers. We’ll see.
VIA: The Verge
