Android Users Alerted Just Before California Earthquake (axios.com) 47
While many people in California felt a moderate earthquake Tuesday, some smartphone users actually got a heads-up before it happened thanks to technology developed at the University of California, Berkeley. Axios reports: Researchers at Berkeley released an app called MyShake that can offer a brief earthquake warning by detecting the signals of an earthquake just before they are felt. Think of it like how you can see lightning before you hear thunder. The app works on both iPhone and Android, but Google announced in 2020 it would implement Berkeley's technology directly into Android, allowing far more people to benefit.
As often happens after an earthquake, people turned to Twitter after the Magnitude 5.1 quake. But some reported getting the alert first. "Got the earthquake alert on my Android phone a few seconds before I felt it," Google's Dieter Bohn said in a tweet. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also tweeted about getting the alert.
As often happens after an earthquake, people turned to Twitter after the Magnitude 5.1 quake. But some reported getting the alert first. "Got the earthquake alert on my Android phone a few seconds before I felt it," Google's Dieter Bohn said in a tweet. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also tweeted about getting the alert.
Japan has had this for years. (Score:4, Interesting)
I live in Japan and have for the last 12 years. I was there for the 2011 quake, and following the quake, this functionality was available in all Android and iPhones natively, with no need for an app. I get alerts fairly regularly just before a fairly sizable quake hits now.
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This is different, and is using phones as seismometers to help predict earthquakes. The US already has the Emergency Alert System, which is on all phones, and can send any notification the government wants to send. So technically they can already alert anyone they want of anything they want, such as an earthquake.
MyShake involves accelerometer and GPS location data collection, processing and transmission, in addition to displaying alerts.
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In Southern California during the 1980s and 1990, so 40 years ago, one could listen to the W6FXN repeater which would transmit the Running Springs seismic tone if a certain deviation was exceeded. Depending on the geometry, this would provide several seconds of warning.
Liars (Score:3)
It came afterwards for most people who were near the epicenter (who it matters for). And then by coincidence an Amber alert came a short while later which confused some people too.
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It will never be possible to alert people in any reasonable time when they are close to the epicenter. For a quake of this magnitude the service is more of a curiosity. When you get up to 7.0 and greater is where an app like this can really shine. People right near the center will still be surprised, but people a considerable distance away will get several or more critical seconds of warning to take cover. Quakes of that magnitude can cause damage far from the epicenter. This app can save lives in that
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That can happen on phones where the manufacturer made the power saving too aggressive. Certain services, like the one that handles push notifications and these alerts, is not supposed to get power managed to death so that it can promptly deliver messages.
I've used this feature in Japan and the alerts consistently arrive before the earthquake is felt.
Bloat (Score:1)
Google announced in 2020 it would implement Berkeley's technology directly into Android, allowing far more people to benefit.
That's called bloat, especially when you consider what a small percentage of the population live in earthquake zones. MyShake only supports three states in the first place (California, Oregon, and Washington). But let's just put it on a billion Android phones anyway.
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Who cares if it saves a few lives right? God knows a megabyte or two of space on your phone is more important that a few human lives.
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Who cares if it saves a few lives right? God knows a megabyte or two of space on your phone is more important that a few human lives.
It's not just on my phone, it's on everybody's phone. All that storage space adds up.
You'd think it could be done by SMS but I'm happy all the iPhone users died. No more weird punctuation on /., yay!
(What was the death toll anyway? The article didn't have hard numbers...)
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It's more than a message broadcast from central servers. According to TFA, it utilizes data from phones, compares it and decides what is an earthquake. And what is just your mom's bed shaking.
Does that mean the accelerometer has to be constantly powered on and a background app running, using my battery?
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The accelerometer is always on. That's how it switches between landscape and portrait views when you rotate the phone. Or how it knows when you've put the phone down, so it should require an unlock pattern the next time you use it. It uses negligible battery.
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Yes all that space adds up. So what? How many terabytes out of exabytes is a human life worth?
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How many terabytes out of exabytes is a human life worth?
Are you a lawyer? Who are you going to sue?
Will it be "negligence" if google builds this in and people only get 9 seconds to save themselves instead of 10?
PS: Let's hope you never find out how many people die in car crashes every single day.
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So what? How many terabytes out of exabytes is a human life worth?
Hate to say it, but it depends on the human.
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Yes all that space adds up. So what? How many terabytes out of exabytes is a human life worth?
Even with inflation and disregarding the low income elasticity, estimates of the value of a statistical life is less than $15 million https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] The number of active android phone users seems difficult to pin down but around 3 billion, bit more if you count tablets (you wouldn't want to count tv/boxes and such as they lack necessary sensors). For the sake of argument and ease of counting I'm guesstimating that a billion bytes of emmc storage has an average cost of $1. Which gives me a
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It's not just on my phone, it's on everybody's phone. All that storage space adds up.
Yeah, won't you think of the single-digit number of useless selfies and pictures of food that would fit into that amount of space on everybody's phone if this wasn't there!
Seriously, you are bitching about nothing. If you are that worried about storage space, spend some time going through your photo library and deleting shit you'll never look at - it's a far better use of your time, and will net you far more storage space than crying about Google including a feature that literally tens of millions of peopl
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So is this something special in the app, or is it just an extension to the existing android alert messages system? Summary doesn't say.
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In your scenario I probably won't recognise the alert, and by the time I've figured out what it is and what action to take it will be too late.
Re:Bloat (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you really bitching and moaning about a few megabytes of code on your phone which can potentially save lives by being there?
Really?
How fucking self-centered can you get...
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Are you really bitching and moaning about a few megabytes of code on your phone which can potentially save lives by being there?
You forgot to mention thinking about the children. It can save their lives too. That totally justifies it.
On a serious note, a few megabytes here, a few megabytes there. A COVID tracker here, an earthquake seismometer there, code to upload and report images that might be illegal pornography, code to report your position for Google to show traffic backups on their maps. Just throw it all in there. It's just megabytes. And not everyone is as fucking self-centered as me, so they think about the needs and want
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Are you really bitching and moaning about a few megabytes of code on your phone which can potentially save lives by being there?
You forgot to mention thinking about the children. It can save their lives too. That totally justifies it.
On a serious note, a few megabytes here, a few megabytes there. A COVID tracker here, an earthquake seismometer there, code to upload and report images that might be illegal pornography, code to report your position for Google to show traffic backups on their maps. Just throw it all in there. It's just megabytes. And not everyone is as fucking self-centered as me, so they think about the needs and wants of Google, unlike my selfish ass.
Then build your own phone and shut the fuck up.
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You forgot to mention thinking about the children.
Also "women and minorities hardest hit"
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MyShake only supports three states in the first place
"According to Google, the Android-based earthquake alerts will be expanded to more states and countries in the coming year." https://www.dailycal.org/2020/... [dailycal.org]
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"According to Google, the Android-based earthquake alerts will be expanded to more states and countries in the coming year."
Right... because there are only 10 states that even have an earthquake index greater than 1.
To round out the bottom 16, these don't even have an earthquake index of 0.1 (California's index is 200 times higher, at 21.8, which is 5 times higher than the next continental state)
36. 0.08 Alabama
37. 0.08 Georgia
38. 0.07 District of Columbia
39. 0.06 West Virginia
40. 0.05 Mississippi
41. 0.05 Kansas
42. 0.05 South Dakota
43. 0.04 Michigan
44. 0.04 Nebraska
45. 0.0
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Where's western Tennessee?
9.0 possible there soon (again).
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That's called bloat
One man's bloat is another's critical feature. I'm happy for you that you don't need or want to use this but really confused as to why you think that general purposes OS are designed specifically for you and only you. I mean every man thinks they are the centre of the universe, but most of us don't go nearly that far.
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I think that's why many devices nowadays have the ability to install additional software on top of the factory image. People for whom a feature is critical can install it.
Or maybe, as an intermediate between the extremes, bloaty features can be included by default in factory images for high-risk markets (e.g. Pacific rim, central Asia) and not in factory images for low-risk markets (e.g. Europe, Africa, rest of the Americas).
MyShake (Score:5, Funny)
Researchers at Berkeley released an app called MyShake ...
It comes in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
Oh. Never mind.
Re: MyShake (Score:2)
"This app requires permission to: Vibrate
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There's one for lava as well, although ... (Score:3)
You have to able to move very quickly for it to be useful, as it works by sensing the rapidly rising temperature caused by the incoming molten magma.
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Would be nice to have one for lightning too. Electrical storm headed your way, unplug stuff that isn't protected.
There are a few apps but none of them seem to work very well.
pleasantly surprised (Score:2)
I got the alert between the P and S waves, (THUD...ping!...rumble-rumble) and gave me enough time to step away from the shelves in the lab. Not that anything would have come loose from this minor shimmy, but it's nice to know the system works.
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I got the alert between the P and S waves, (THUD...ping!...rumble-rumble) and gave me enough time to step away from the shelves in the lab. Not that anything would have come loose from this minor shimmy, but it's nice to know the system works.
The P-waves seem like they're good enough of a hint by themselves, assuming the building you are in isn't big enough for them to get absorbed.
You'd have to be a pretty good distance away for an alert to arrive sooner with the p-waves traveling at ~3.7 miles per second. Figure two or three seconds to detect the event, then a two or three more seconds to broadcast the notification, and you're at probably 20 to 30 miles before the notification would beat the actual arrival of the P-waves.
At 20 miles, I felt t
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Re:pleasantly surprised (Score:4, Interesting)
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Apple iOS Notifications broken (Score:2)
Obligatory XKCD (Score:5, Interesting)
https://xkcd.com/723/ [xkcd.com]
iPhone too and no need for app (Score:2)