Android is Becoming a Worldwide Earthquake Detection Network (theverge.com) 32
Google is creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered earthquake alert system. The first part of that system is rolling out today. If you opt in, the accelerometer in your Android phone will become one data point for an algorithm designed to detect earthquakes. Eventually, that system will automatically send warnings to people who could be impacted. From a report: It's a feature made possible through Google's strengths: the staggering numbers of Android phones around the world and clever use of algorithms on big data. As with its collaboration with Apple on exposure tracing and other Android features like car crash detection and emergency location services, it shows that there are untapped ways that smartphones could be used for something more important than doomscrolling. Google is rolling out the system in small stages. First, Google is partnering with the United States Geological Survey and the California Office of Emergency Services to send the agencies' earthquake alerts to Android users in that state. Those alerts are generated by the already-existing ShakeAlert system, which uses data generated by traditional seismometers.
My phone is in my pocket (Score:2)
Will it detect flatulence as seismicity? I feel a three-burrito tremblor coming on
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Only Big Data. So, National Chilli Cook-off events.
I used to have an app to collect accelerometer (Score:5, Informative)
... data for exactly this purpose. I - and many other people - stopped using it because it was a massive battery drain.
Ironically, one minor, simple feature would have made it usable - only working when plugged in (which is, regardless, when the phone is still, on a hard surface, and providing the best data). Yet they not only did just that, but implemented the option (a feature to sleep the app when plugged in).
Sounds like Google is being smart about it and only activating it when the phones are plugged in.
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Corr: Not only *didn't* do just that
Re: I used to have an app to collect accelerometer (Score:1)
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Checking every minute isn't so useful since google is trying to get a response time of seconds.
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I wonder how long ago this was that you tried it. I'm thinking there had to have been some massive improvements on this front over the years. Aren't the accelerometers used these days to detect if the phone is face down (for DND mode) or when the phone is picked up (for face unlock)? So they pretty much have to be running full time these days.
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Yes, there are significant improvements.
First, sensors used to be polled devices - you simply asked them what the current reading is and they returned it. Nowadays, ma
Google Wheel (Score:3)
Sure you have a wheel, many in fact, but you don't have Google Wheel. We'll re-invent anything! Plus it's an app, so it rolls smoothly over even the most rugged terrain.
Personally, I've always preferred the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) [usgs.gov] over Google Shake, or whatever the fuck they are calling this one.
Re:Google Wheel (Score:4, Informative)
That's interesting. Lets see what your link says
When earthquakes strike, ANSS delivers real-time information , providing situational awareness for emergency-response personnel. In regions with sufficient seismic stations, that information includes –within minutes–a ShakeMap showing the distribution of potentially damaging ground shaking, information used to target post-earthquake response efforts.
Well, there's your problem. Their system gives information minutes later, for coordinating things after the fact. The system google is working on will give alerts in just a few seconds, so you can coordinate things BEFORE the earthquake hits. If you RTFA it's all explained in great details (you have to go down like 8 or 10 paragraphs before you start hitting the real meat of why this makes sense). Now manybe ANSS can improve their response times to do what google wants to do, but I'd guess that's out of Googles control, and maybe not even possible with what ANSS works with. Either way, Google can work on their system, and if someone else can step up and do it better, so be it. At least they're getting the ball rolling.
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That data is processed in classic Google fashion: using algorithms on the aggregated data from thousands of phones [xkcd.com] to determine whether an earthquake is happening [xkcd.com].
"Great detail" [xkcd.com]. Deepest technical read I've had in a while. Algorithms, man. That's all you need to say. I'm in.
Just do this: (Score:3)
2) Select a group of subscribers living close enough, and send them an SMS. Each smartphone, upon receiving the message, will vibrate for a while.
3)
4) Quake warning!
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Because the accelerometer doesn't know when the phone is vibrating?
Clever (Score:1)
Cool idea (Score:2)
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No, it's not the money aspect, it's the location aspect. What makes the COVID exposure API so good is that it's a standard way to do things but gathers no PII at all. No names, no addresses, no locations.
Unfortunately, for earthquake stuff to work, you need location information, and possibl
Don't be fooled! (Score:3)
How do you think Lucius Fox got access to all those phones for the surveillance system in Dark Knight? This sounds cool, but you'll be giving away your privacy for nothing!
(I think I'm kidding. I'll let you know for sure in three or four years.)
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Android users clearly are not concerned with giving their privacy away for nothing. After all, they are using Android - Google already has all our information, so at least we may as well know about the earthquakes.
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No, Android and Google are not married even though you seem to think they are. I've been using Android for more than 9 years yet I do no have a Google account and there is no Google-proprietary software on my devices. A few of them run a free software re-implementation of parts of the Google Services Framwork, the rest doesn't. All of them get their software from F-Droid and similar free software repositories. Apart from the radio firmware blob (which you'll find on all devices from all manufacturers runnin
Hard drive vibration sensors (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe there was an attempt a few years ago (probably many years ago since I'm old) to do the same thing using the vibration sensors in hard disk units. It worked well by was limited.
Hummmmmmm.... (Score:1)
First, I'm in favor of the idea overall. I know that there have been various app sin the past, but going it all under "Google" would make it more efficient and functional.
Then there's the mistrust. As a company, I don't trust Google as far as I can throw them. They have, too many times, been caught accessing and or misusing user data. Not to mention the rampant harvesting f user data to sell for advertising, marketing, trending, etc, etc. Even if I thought that the project was worthy, I'd NEVER opt-in
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This ^^^^^^
lol
are they going to pay us? (Score:1)
i mean, the world is moving to mass unemployment.... i would imagine if some of the big tech companies made a move to provide monetary compensation for the data they are collecting from people, which after all, is where all their profits come from (data they collect from people) i just wonder if it could help the entire situation of the planet if they started to just pay people for the data they are collecting.
big tech literally has trillions of dollars in cash and there are hundreds of millions of
Android is a Worldwide Detection Network (Score:2)
Obviously requires your precise location ... (Score:2)
... at all times.
Hey Google. FUCK OFF AND DIE, or we will make you!
Not me (Score:2)
I won't be doing that, because there's tons of earthquakes in Connecticut! Seriously, I have no intention to travel to places where there are frequently earthquakes either, not because of the earthquakes, because I have no desire to go there.
Whole lotta shakin going on. (Score:2)
How timely in the face of the devastating North Carolina 5.1 earthquake.
Solution: Paint shaker (Score:1)