Your phone may well – literally – save your life. Thanks to a system developed by Google for a few years already, millions of Android smartphones are a gigantic earthquake detection network around the world. Here’s how this technology works, and why it could upset the seismic alert.
Imagine a world where, a few seconds before an earthquake strikes, your smartphone alerts you from the imminent danger. It is not science fiction, but a reality in several regions of the world. Since 2020, Google discreetly transforms each Android smartphone into a “Mini-seismometer capable of detecting the characteristic vibrations of an earthquake”. By relying on more than 2 billion Android devices in circulation, the American giant is focusing on the strength of the collective to anticipate the unpredictable.
A global network of seismic sensors in your pocket
At the heart of the system implemented by the Mountain View firm: the accelerometer, this small sensor already present in all phones to detect movements, such as the change of orientation of the screen for example. Concretely, when a smartphone detects a suspicious movement, it sends information to Google servers, which analyze data from thousands of other devices nearby in real time. If the signal is confirmed as that of an earthquake, an alert can then theoretically be triggered in the following seconds.
Originally launched in California in the summer of 2020, the service was quickly deployed in other seismic regions such as Greece, Turkey and New Zealand. In France, alerts are not yet active, but the data is already collected to supply the predictive models of Google. Ultimately, this innovation could complete traditional seismic systems and networks, especially in countries lacking recent infrastructure for detection.
Be careful, however, not to (too) overestimate the scope of Google technology: it is not a question of predicting earthquakes in advance, but detecting them from their first tremors to allow the population to react as soon as possible. And in the case of an earthquake, these seconds can sometimes make all the difference.
Richard Allen, director of the seismology laboratory at the University of Berkeley (California), explains that the objective of the project is not precisely to replace conventional detection systems, but to provide additional reinforcement. The scientist also adds that the current system is not capable of “Detect all earthquakes” – It is indeed inevitably dependent on the number of smartphones present at the level of the seismic epicenter.
Sources : Google, GEO, Phonandroid
