MyShake: An App to Issue Earthquake Warnings

Today there are apps for almost every other thing we do. The new  and welcome addition in already abundant app industry is MyShake. This app can record an earthquake like a seismograph and also issue an earthquake warning that gives 8 seconds lead time.

Screen Shots of MyShake

According to its developer Alan Richard at UC Barkely, It can sense the shakes due to the earthquakes by using its complicated algorithm with a remarkable 93% accuracy. By downloading this app your smart phone literally acts like a seismograph, which not only can record the earthquakes but most importantly it send these signals to its cloud servers where an area wide warning of the earthquakes can be sent to all its users.

How It Works

After completing its installation, MyShake works in background just like health apps, and starts recording and analyzing the data gathered from smart phone accelerometer sensor. All this Data is analyzed by a sophisticated algorithm which can distinguish in Human Activity and earthquake.

If earthquake signal is detected it then sends backs it to Berkeley Seismological Laboratory data centers. By comparing it with data gathered from other smart phones this data center qualifies these results as negative or positive. For reliable and good predictions it requires about 300 users within 1000 square KM area.

According to developer Allan Richard, “Conventionally it requires a trigger from four conventional seismographs stations to issue an alert. But by using the MyShake data along with the conventional seismograph an alert can be issued when only one seismograph is triggered. So this app will never replace the seismograph networks but can be used to enhance and speed up an earthquake alert.”

He also adds by MyShake the average phone can record a magnitude 5 earthquake within 10 kilometers of radius.

Benefits

Shakes from the earthquake move like waves from its center to the surrounding areas.  If we can have an alerts from the center of earthquake just when it occurs then it is possible to issue an alert in the surrounding areas almost 8 seconds before the quake. This 8 second lead time is crucial in a catastrophic event. In this time people can bend and duck under a strong table which can reduce the injuries by a large amount. Also in many earthquakes is the secondary wave that is more destructive, so an alert on a before primary wave can buy you a crucial time to coupe with this emergency.  

Also in countries like Nepal and Peru, where earthquake are common and no useful and integrated earthquake systems are available peoples have lot of mobile phones. By MyShake app these phones can act as earthquake alert system. By issuing an emergency and early alert the effects of earthquakes can be reduces there. 

MyShake along with detecting an earthquake also provides users with information about recent earthquakes and significant historical earthquakes. So what are you waiting for, you can download this app for both android and iOS from the respective app stores. People in all six continents are already using this app with majority in USA.