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The newly updated MyShake app detects seismic events using peoples cell phones, then sends notifications to people nearby 5-10 seconds before the shock waves ar
by mike_d 7y ago
The newly updated MyShake app detects seismic events using peoples cell phones, then sends notifications to people nearby 5-10 seconds before the shock waves arrive.
https://myshake.berkeley.edu/ https://myshake.berkeley.edu/
- mehrdadn 7y agoThanks, but oh man... I've tried this a year or two ago, but I was hoping there would be something that wouldn't require my phone to have constant data connectivity? I turn it off sometimes especially at home/work. :\ Edit: I'm also not sure how much battery it uses... hopefully the battery-saver mode won't use much?
- ahbyb 7y agoHow would something like this work without connectivity?
- mehrdadn 7y agoI didn't say without connectivity, I just said without phone data connectivity. Email would be best, SMS could work too.
- ahbyb 7y agoEmail doesn't work without phone data
- mehrdadn 7y agoSure it does? It goes to my computer.
- ahbyb 7y agoAh geez. I was assuming you wanted the alerts to be sent to your mobile while you were away from home.
- neuronic 7y agoAnd your assumption was right. The original premise was "how can I get notified within seconds after tremors occur" and not "please send an email for me to read when I happen to use a desktop PC".
- donkeyd 7y agoSome people spend most of their day on their laptops and try to limit phone time. People in this thread are all assuming everyone does things they way they do, but not all people are the same.
- jannes 7y agoEmail delivery can easily be delayed 1-2 minutes. I’m not sure it’s the best method for an early warning system.
- mehrdadn 7y agoI usually get my emails instantly, but if they get delayed, then they get delayed. At least a chance of getting a notification quickly is far better than nothing.
- squarefoot 7y agoA mix of technologies might help: say 10 cellphones in a given area detect a tremor, they start communicating each other via mesh WiFi (long range BT, LoRa if available etc.) their data and if one of them is connected to the Internet, it packs all data and send it to a central server where it is matched with other (groups of) cellphones data and evaluated if an alert is to be sent. If yes, it can use the same path (central server->Internet->connected phone->phones nearby) plus broadcasting an alert to other media sources, TV, radio etc. All it would need is one cellphone to be connected at a time, which in non rural areas should be almost the norm today. Also, the amount of data sent and received would be trivial so it wouldn't impact connectivity costs.
- ramchip 7y agoIn Japan you can get early earthquake notifications, before the seismic waves arrive, via area broadcast. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_Early_Warning_(Japan)#Mobile-phone_networks https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_Early_Warning_(Ja...
- dheera 7y agoI agree, having an API or some such would be nice; I don't usually carry around a phone indoors when I have massive screens available to me, and also put my phone in airplane mode while sleeping.
- lazyasciiart 7y agoThe system only works because people run the app on their phones to produce the data.
- andai 7y ago> MyShake uses a neural network to decide which motion is produced by earthquakes and which isn’t.
- jdavis703 7y agoFWIW this app failed to detect an earthquake yesterday that I felt in Mountain View (the origin was in Hollister). I think they still have some fine-tuning.
- notable_user 7y agoAlmost certainly they detected the earthquake and decided not to notify people because it was too small to warrant a notification.
- TheCraiggers 7y agoAlmost certainly, that's pure conjecture.
- athriren 7y agoThe article I read announcing statewide rollout actually goes into some detail regarding what threshold the quake has to hit for notifying people. I found it interesting, because I had initially expected it to send out warnings for every quake. Some people complained that the app didn’t warn them about quakes they felt that had been quite mild, so they lowered the threshold for alert to more closely conform to people’s expectations (even though that level of shaking was very minor and not necessary to warn people about). [0] https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/10/17/20919639/california-earthquake-early-warning-system-app https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/10/17/20919639/ca...