Smarthphone earthquake quantifier (?)
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 2:47 am
One possible use for a smartphone as a scientific measuring device is to use the internal accelerometer to measure information about earthquakes as they happen. The idea would be that a bunch of smartphones that just happened to be in the vicinity of an earthquake and otherwise motionless should be able to record their location and accelerations over time and report this back to a central location. I am not a seismologist, but it would seem to me that the coverage of a whole bunch of smartphones in a impromptu network might be of use in quantifying the nature, magnitude, and reach of an earthquake. Also, once an earthquake was measured, subscribing smartphone app owners might be text-ed or emailed to be sure to turn on their earthquake app to quantify the magnitude, breadth, and duration of possible aftershocks.
I would have guessed that there would be such apps in the iPhone app store. But after looking online and with my the iPhone store app on my iPhone, now I am not so sure. There do seem to be a few apps that are labelled as "Earthquake detectors" but it seems that the idea behind these is informing you if there is an earthquake, either from your smartphones single accelerometer or from an alert network. One example app is "Earthquake Detector" by Dream C&C Canada, which is described on this web page: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/earthqua ... d388551065 . This app appears somewhat interesting but does not seem to do real science by measuring an earthquake from a variety of vantage points. Perhaps, however, I am mis-informed or don't understand this or similar apps fully. And I have only looked at iPhone apps. If someone knows more or investigates further and finds out something deeper or different, please post that as a response to this post.
- RJN
I would have guessed that there would be such apps in the iPhone app store. But after looking online and with my the iPhone store app on my iPhone, now I am not so sure. There do seem to be a few apps that are labelled as "Earthquake detectors" but it seems that the idea behind these is informing you if there is an earthquake, either from your smartphones single accelerometer or from an alert network. One example app is "Earthquake Detector" by Dream C&C Canada, which is described on this web page: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/earthqua ... d388551065 . This app appears somewhat interesting but does not seem to do real science by measuring an earthquake from a variety of vantage points. Perhaps, however, I am mis-informed or don't understand this or similar apps fully. And I have only looked at iPhone apps. If someone knows more or investigates further and finds out something deeper or different, please post that as a response to this post.
- RJN