New app uses smartphones to detect earthquakes

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have created a new android phone app, MyShake that monitors ground shaking activity by accessing phone sensors. The free app went live on the Google Play store Friday, and an iPhone version is planned.

Here's how MyShake works: The app constantly draws data from the accelerometer sensors, already present in most smartphones that allow for screen rotation and step-counters. The application analyzes movement data and triggers if it fits the profile of an earthquake. MyShake immediately sends the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory a small packet of data, including the phone's GPS coordinates and the amplitude and time of the shaking. The app then records five minutes of data, which is sent in once the phone is plugged into power and connected to WiFi.

Based on the data, the lab can confirm an earthquake if at least four individual phones, or more than 60 percent of nearby devices, within a 10-kilometer radius pick up the shaking, according to researchers. In general, smartphone sensors can register an earthquake greater than a magnitude five.

For now, MyShake is simply a data-collection tool, but scientists hope it can eventually act as an alert system that gives users a warning before an earthquake hits.

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