News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 22, 2008

geekery

Shake, rattle, and roll: Macs help detect earthquakes

Posted Apr. 22, ’08, 9:58 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Geekery

QuakeCatcherWe know you can do all sorts of cool stuff with the accelerometers that have been built into portable Macs since around 2005. Here’s another to add to the list: detecting the next earthquake. MIT’s Technology Review has a story about a distributed computing network for detecting earthquakes—think SETI@home or Folding@home, but for earthquakes.

Much as it may sound like it, the Quake Catcher Network is not for determining when your employees are playing video games at work. Rather, it’s an attempt to quickly identify when an earthquake is happening so that those affected can be notified as soon as possible. QCN is intended as a supplement to the network of seismometers already in place in volatile regions like California. And before you ask, the program only kicks in if you haven’t used your computer for three minutes, and it can filter out extraneous vibrations from things like trucks passing by (though we bet that if you and your buddies installed it on enough computers in your office, you could trick the system into thinking there was earthquake—but that would probably be fundamentally wrong).

At the moment, the program is primarily aimed at frequent earthquake areas like the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin. It’s also limited to those using Mac laptops with accelerometers (post 2005-PowerBooks and all MacBooks/MBPs/MBAs) or desktops with a special USB dongle. A Windows version of the software for compatible HP and Lenovo laptops is forthcoming, but right now Macs are the only ones who can help save the world.


1 Comments

Dimitri said:

Thank you for the great reference. I really like the idea of participating in a distributed computing effort that my computer is uniquely capable of aiding. Putting all of the laptop's capabilities to work really maximizes the benefit of the distributed effort.

April 26, 2008 11:02 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: