Google announced Tuesday the launch of an earthquake warning device for cellphones, equipped with the Android operating system in California. Smartphones will receive alerts triggered by a system for detecting the first signs of an earthquake, called " ShakeAlert ", set up by the American Institute of Geological Studies (USGS) and its partners on the West Coast.
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The system uses information collected by hundreds of seismographs across the state to activate the sending of alerts that an " earthquake has started and a tremor is imminent, " according to the device's website.
" We saw an opportunity to use Android to provide people with accurate and useful information about earthquakes when they are looking for them, and a few second warnings so they can get to safety with loved ones if needed. " , explained Marc Stogaitis, engineer at Google, in a blog.
Android smartphone users also have the option of participating in a collaborative earthquake detection network, as the phones are often equipped with small motion-measuring accelerometers capable of detecting shaking, according to Stogaitis.
“ Your Android phone can be a small seismograph connecting to millions of other phones to form the world's largest earthquake detection network ,” he points out.
Cell phones that spot what could be an earthquake can automatically send a signal to a data center, where computers analyze motion and location data in an aggregate fashion to determine if an earthquake is in progress, according to Google.
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The people of California grew up with a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads: the fear of the " Big One ", this earthquake of such magnitude that it should devastate California, a state placed on the San Andreas fault and regularly prone to tremors, although large earthquakes are relatively rare.
