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TOP STORY: DECEMBER 19, 2012

Smartphone or Seismometer?By Zuberoa Marcos

Researchers at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory want to useour smartphones, and the sensors they carry, as pocket-sized seismometers todetect and investigate earthquakes. The phones could serve as warningsystems that would make the difference between life or death—giving peopleprecious seconds to take cover, alerting trains to slow down, allowing planes toabort landings, or helping surgeons to manage their procedures.

Smartphones contain accelerometers that can detect and record movement,possibly monitoring tremors. UC Berkeley researcher Qingkai Kong told BBCNews, “Right now, we can only detect earthquakes above about Magnitude 5.0,but with better accelerometers in future smartphones, we would hope to detectsmaller ones as well.”

To see if mobile phones could be used as pocket seismometers, a number ofthe devices were put on the Seismic Lab's shake table, an instrument that cansimulate tremors of various strengths. It is usually employed to test therobustness of various construction techniques to provide confidence thatbuildings will not collapse during an earthquake. (Science in Action produced avideo about this shake table technology earlier this year.)

The researchers found the phone accelerometers, primarily used to re-orient the screen display when thephones are tilted, could pick up the shaking. Since smartphones aren't generally sitting “still” but are movingwith their owners, scientists developed an algorithm that removes this movement "noise" from the phones'data.

At present, the researchers are developing an app that will record shaking during major events and then reportthe data back to a central server over the cellular network.

The Berkeley team hopes to test the app next year with thousands of volunteers across the Bay Area.

Zuberoa Marcos is a former biologist and current science writer based in Barcelona. She writesarticles regularly for Science Today.

¿Smartphones o sismómetros?

Por Zuberoa Marcos

Nuestros teléfonos inteligentes van a ser más inteligentes todavía.

Investigadores del Laboratorio Sismológico de Berkeley quieren utilizarlos, en concreto los sensores quellevan, como sismógrafos de bolsillo para detectar e investigar los terremotos. Los teléfonos utilizados comosistemas de alerta podrían marcar la diferencia entre la vida o la muerte dando a las personas uso segundosde adelanto muy valiosos para ponerse a cubierto, para que los trenes frenes, los aviones cancelenaterrizajes y los cirujanos acaben la intervención antes de que llegue el terremoto.

El elemento clave de los smartphones para que puedan hacer este trabajo son sus acelerómetros, capacesde detectar y registrar el movimiento y controlar los temblores. "En este momento, sólo podemos detectarseísmos por encima de magnitud 5,0, pero conforme los acelerómetros se perfeccionen podremos detectartambién los de menor intensidad ", dijo a BBC News el investigador Qingkai Kong.

Para comprobar que los teléfonos móviles realmente pueden ser utilizados como sismómetros de bolsillo, loscientíficos colocaron un buen número de estos dispositivos en la “mesa de sacudidas” del laboratorio, uninstrumento capaz de simular temblores de varias intensidades. Se utiliza habitualmente para probar lasolidez de distintas técnicas de construcción, para asegurarse de que un edificio no se desplomará durante unterremoto.

Los investigadores comprobaron que los acelerómetros del teléfono, utilizados principalmente para re-orientarla pantalla cuando el teléfono se inclina, podían recoger el temblor. Como los smartphones habitualmente noestán sobre una mesa plana sino en movimiento en el bolsillo de sus dueños, los científicos desarrollaron unalgoritmo que elimina “ruido” del movimiento de los datos del teléfono.

En la actualidad están desarrollando una app que graba el temblor y luego envía los datos a un servidorcentral a través de la red de telefonía móvil.

El equipo de Berkeley espera poder realizar los primeros ensayos de la aplicación el próximo año con milesde voluntarios reclutados en San Francisco y la zona de la Bahía.

Zuberoa Marcos es bióloga molecular y actualmente trabaja como productora de TV y periodistacientífica. Escribe de forma regular para Science Today.

Image: Apple

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