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No mention of MyShake [1], a California-based effort to use smartphone sensors to detect earthquakes. The potential is incredible but with actually popular apps

No mention of MyShake [1], a California-based effort to use smartphone sensors to detect earthquakes. The potential is incredible but with actually popular apps - presumably like ShakeAlert - not contributing data it seems like an epic lost opportunity. Phones have been able to detect earthquakes, changes in the weather, magnetic field changes, but we (the tech community) are not doing any of those things at scale. IMO all these things should be built-in to phones OS' as a kind of distributed multi-purpose sensor network. For now, we just have a smattering of not-very-popular apps that can potentially do neat things but are not centralized or popular enough to actually do them right. [1] MyShake article: https://www.popsci.com/now-you-can-download-an-earthquake-sensor-onto-your-smartphone/ https://www.popsci.com/now-you-can-download-an-earthquake-se...

DecoPerson 7y ago
Being familiar with this, have you seen any info about how this would affect battery life? The potential of using smartphones as massive sensor array for various purposes has always been a curiosity of mine, but most material I've read on the matter shows battery life to be a significant limiting factor.
- cryptoz 7y ago
  I think battery life is quite simple to solve for, actually. A common method to work through this, especially for earthquakes, is to only capture sensor data when the phone is stationary and plugged in+charging. If the phone is moving or unplugged, no data needs to be gathered. Sure, this limits the quantity of data you can get in the short-term, but relaxes users long-term and keeps the app installed. Offering these settings as toggles also helps. FWIW, I mostly work on barometers. New versions of Android lock down the sensor access so it cannot be done in the background; my solution is low-resolution data (15-minute intervals, rather than ideal 1-minute) and for user privacy, I can discard location data after summarizing pressure data into gridded anonymous areas. I do this in All Clear Weather: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearweather.android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearwe... (US, Android) Sensor code: https://github.com/JacobSheehy/AllClearSensorLibrary https://github.com/JacobSheehy/AllClearSensorLibrary I am also interested in gathering magnetic data, and presently also collect temperature, light sensor and humidity from phones that have it. I believe all this data could be useful for weather prediction, which is my current target. But earthquake alerts, magnetic field/solar storm warnings, sound pollution (microphone), and various other distributed sensor networks should also be possible. I have not noticed any battery degradation or over-use of resources in my dealings with sensors. As long as the developer takes care in the code and respects users' wishes, I think it's totally doable.

DecoPerson 7y ago

Being familiar with this, have you seen any info about how this would affect battery life? The potential of using smartphones as massive sensor array for various purposes has always been a curiosity of mine, but most material I've read on the matter shows battery life to be a significant limiting factor.

cryptoz 7y ago
I think battery life is quite simple to solve for, actually. A common method to work through this, especially for earthquakes, is to only capture sensor data when the phone is stationary and plugged in+charging. If the phone is moving or unplugged, no data needs to be gathered. Sure, this limits the quantity of data you can get in the short-term, but relaxes users long-term and keeps the app installed. Offering these settings as toggles also helps. FWIW, I mostly work on barometers. New versions of Android lock down the sensor access so it cannot be done in the background; my solution is low-resolution data (15-minute intervals, rather than ideal 1-minute) and for user privacy, I can discard location data after summarizing pressure data into gridded anonymous areas. I do this in All Clear Weather: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearweather.android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearwe... (US, Android) Sensor code: https://github.com/JacobSheehy/AllClearSensorLibrary https://github.com/JacobSheehy/AllClearSensorLibrary I am also interested in gathering magnetic data, and presently also collect temperature, light sensor and humidity from phones that have it. I believe all this data could be useful for weather prediction, which is my current target. But earthquake alerts, magnetic field/solar storm warnings, sound pollution (microphone), and various other distributed sensor networks should also be possible. I have not noticed any battery degradation or over-use of resources in my dealings with sensors. As long as the developer takes care in the code and respects users' wishes, I think it's totally doable.