Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 26 March 2008 |
Nature
452,
397
(2008)
| doi:10.1038/452397a
Updated online: 2 April 2008
News
Laptops track Earth's shakes, rattles and rolls
A geoscientist devises a way to boost computing power.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
Wow! Ideas on a roll! This one if it really goes on to give a fore-warning of a big tremblor will win the prize for innovation. The idea is superb, and the processing must be really cutting-edge to filter out the 1000s of false accelerations that might happen. But with thousands of laptops linked up you can pretty be sure what is local and what is not.
Nice idea. What happens when a very localized event impacts a large number of computers? A building demolition in LA or sewer construction in a location very close to a school with many computers on the network? Will you incorporate a link to a database of known signal to filter those out from a warning system? Some filtering can be done with regard to the shape of the acceleration signal but I am guessing that some may overlap the spectrum where seismic waves could be generated. Very interesting idea, I hope that Nature continues to keep us abreast of this project. How much did the research cost? Is this a huge return in reward per unit tax payer effort?
Erik Vance has blown the opportunity to let people know ab out BOINC, where Quake-Catcher has an alpha of its project. BOINC is the producer of the software and aggregator of the projects which enable distributed computing. BOINC grew out of the SETI project cited in the article. There are many wonderful projects about which to get excited using the BOINC agent for "crunching". BOINC has agents for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Please visit: http://boinc.berkeley.edu Also, please take a look at what is happening at World Community Grid, another central location for projects which use the BOINC agent. Please visit: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org There are about one million "crunchers", out of one billion personal computers. So, we are not even a drop in the vast ocean of computing power. We really need you. >>RSM
excellent idea. seismic zones would certainly gain with any kind of help from any source. more laptops in a zone will automatically differenciate local events from real quaking as i suppose the software must recognize the frecuency pattern of some earthquake from other events , like sound or airwaves from tornadoes ,firecracks or windstorms that could move any objects even slightly.
excellent idea. seismic zones would certainly gain with any kind of help from any source. more laptops in a zone will automatically differenciate local events from real quaking as i suppose the software must recognize the frecuency pattern of some earthquake from other events , like sound or airwaves from tornadoes ,firecracks or windstorms that could move any objects even slightly.
Half a million laptops in the Silicon Valley all trying to 'phone home' any shaker they feel all at the same time. Can you say "Network Congestion"? I hope Stanford is ready for this. Gary Bridgewater
Yes, indeed a great idea! About 5 years ago there was a similar publication in c't, (Germanies No1 computer magazine). They demonstrated, how the inertia compensating parts of hard disks could be used to determine the current latitude by estimating / measuring the Corriolis force. Funny enough, this article was also published on (or at least close to) the 1st of April. Hmmmm, good work anyways ... :-) Sebastian
Quake Warn, Early Earthquake warning iPhone application
Sends instant push notifications to the iPhone based on location, quake magnitude and the distance of the earthquake.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320655564&mt=8