Last year we reported on smartphone apps that will allow a user to report health and welfare items to friends and family following an earthquake. In concept, a way to summon help or let loved ones know everything is OK after an event. Now, researchers in Italy have released an extensive study which follows up on work at the University of California-Berkeley that demonstrated the feasibility of using a smartphone's sensors to detect an earthquake. Taken together with the long running computer/sensor based Quake-Catcher Network of Stanford University, this smartphone sensor development foretells creation of a highly accurate, real-time, world-wide seismic reporting network which could be used to quickly direct responders to an epic center. Links below, for more:
(phys.org, September 29, 2013)
(UC-Berkeley)
(Stanford University)
Comment: Beam me up Scotty... The personal communicator in your pocket is well on its way to becoming part of an integrated emergency response network that will support many response needs. It's all about sensors, and what you can do with them.
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