News

Startphones May Be Able to Predict When the next Earthquake Will Be

The common smartphone can do more than track movement, personal health or geographical position. The gadgets nowadays can also warn users of potential earthquakes thanks to advancements in GPS technology.

A team of researchers from the United States reveal how a crowdsourced early warning system can look like. They say that the smartphones are currently able to predict any earthquake with a magnitude of 7 of above. U.S. Geological Survey study leader in California, Sarah Minson, explained how the accelerometer data can be used along with GPS readings to give accurate real-time map activity.

“The GPS on a smartphone is shockingly good. If you take your phone and move it six inches to the right, it knows with surprising accuracy that it moved six inches to the right — and that is exactly what we want to know when studying earthquakes,” Minson stated.

While the idea is unique, it does have its limitations. Smartphones are not scientific instruments and can only act as warning systems, but even so, they may prove to even save lives one day. Minson stated that a special app is required to help record the data.

“The cost is essentially zero, especially since people buy new phones every two years or so to have the latest-and-greatest model,” Minson added.

The researchers have taken data from the 2011 earthquake in Tōhoku, Japan, to test the warning system out. Also, in order to avoid false alarms, the system is said to look for similar movement in different handsets at once.

The study was published in the Science Advances journal, but more research needs to be done before you can have your smartphones yelling at you in case they detect an earthquake.

Thank you Digital Trends for providing us with this information

Gabriel Roşu

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Cities Skylines II Beach Properties DLC is One of The Worst Reviewed DLC on Steam

On March 25th, Colossal Order released the first DLC for Cities Skylines II, the city…

57 mins ago

COLORFUL Launches CVN B650M GAMING FROZEN AM5 Motherboards

Today Colorful Technology has launched two new AMD B650 motherboards under their CVN Gaming Frozen…

2 hours ago

Sharkoon Unveils SKILLER SGK40 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Sharkoon Technologies has today unveiled their SKILLER SGK40, a customizable mechanical gaming keyboard with edge…

3 hours ago

MSI MAG 274UPF E2 4K Ultra HD Monitor Coming Soon

MSI has just revealed their latest feature-packed gaming monitor, the MSI MAG 274UPF E2. It…

4 hours ago

Thermaltake Reveal New S250 TG ARGB Mid-Tower Case

Thermaltake has just revealed its latest addition to its already packed and awesome case collection,…

4 hours ago

No Man’s Sky Orbital Update Trailer Released

Hello Games continues its road to redemption with No Man's Sky, however, I'd say we're…

4 hours ago