Android is now the world’s largest network for earthquake detection

Back in 2016, Ars reported on an interesting use for the bundle of sensors we carry in our smartphones every day – earthquake detection. The accelerometers in your phone create a reasonable enough seismometer, and along with location data and enough users, you could detect earthquakes and alert users when the shocks roll across the landscape. The University of California-Berkeley, along with funding from the State of California, built an app called “MyShake” and a cheap, effective earthquake detection network was born, at least, it was born for people who installed the app.

What if you do not need to install the app? What if earthquake detection was just built into the operating system? That’s the question Google will answer, with today’s announcement of the “Android Earthquake Alerts System.” Google will build what it calls “the largest earthquake network in the world” by rolling out earthquake detection to almost every Google Play Android phone. Here is the meat of the announcement:

All smartphones come with sharp accelerometers that can sense earthquakes. They are even sensitive enough to detect the P-wave, which is the first wave that comes from an earthquake and is typically much less damaged than the S-wave that follows. If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a rough location of where the quake occurred. The server then combines information from many phones to find out if an earthquake occurs. We are essentially racing the speed of light (roughly the speed at which signals from a telephone travel) against the speed of an earthquake. And luckily for us, the speed of light is much faster!

That “race” often only works for a minute as a warning, but that’s usually enough to dive in and cover when you catch the notification.

In California, Android’s earthquake will be a collaboration between Google and the same coalition that treats ShakeAlert, the back-end system that robs the MyShake client of users. California’s ShakeAlert combines smartphone readings with a network of traditional seismometers, and now Android will simply be another ShakeAlert client, pumping data into the system and displaying alarms.

For anywhere else in the world that does not detect such an advanced earthquake infrastructure, Google’s own Android Earthquake Alerts System will be on earthquake watch. The company says that “to begin with, we will use this technology to share a quick, accurate view of the affected area on Google Search. If you search for” earthquake “or” earthquake near me, you will find find relevant results for your area, along with useful, credible resources on what to do after an earthquake. “

The feature is distributed through Google Play Services for every Android phone with version 5.0 and more. Unlike major system updates, which take years to reach the majority of Android phones, Google Play Services is centrally distributed by Google and can reach any active Android phone (except non-Google devices in China) in a few weeks . The requirement for Android 5.0 and above means that 94 percent of the 2.5 billion Google Play Android devices will have access to the feature.

This feature is enabled (and disabled) through the Google Location Services switch in the Android settings (also called “Google Location Accuracy”), which states: “Google may periodically collect location data and use this data anonymously to improve location quality and location-based services. ”Every Android phone asks for this during setup, so while it is not accurate to call this” by default “, you are strongly encouraged to enable it on Location Services during the setup stream, and I would think it’s enabled on the majority of phones. Earthquake Detection uses your raw location data at city level, not your exact location data with fine tuning.

Before proactive warnings roll out around the world, it sounds like Google wants to collect some data first. Proactive earthquake warnings will only be available in California (which already has ShakeAlert and an established dataset), and Google says that “in the coming year, you can expect the earthquake alarms to reach more states and countries.” t Android phone use-based earthquake detection. “