Google is assigning more tools to the Android smartphones’ operating system. This includes the Samsung Galaxy series as well. The warning tools would help in determining earthquakes.
According to Google, it will start working with the Geological Survey (the US). It will focus on sending alerts of earthquakes to the android smartphones and other devices. It would start in California. Android smartphones will be getting an alert to their mobiles in California with the help of the ShakeAlert earthquake warning system.
In a blog post, Google has mentioned, “With the growing cost of natural disasters worldwide, we saw an opportunity to use Android to provide people with timely, helpful earthquake information when they search, as well as a few seconds warning to get themselves and their loved ones to safety if needed.”
Apple does not have these alert warning systems in its iPhones. They rely on other apps that give the word but after the tremor begins.
Phones Would Be Turned To Seismometers
Google has noted that not all the earthquakes were in California bit in Virginia and North Carolina as well. The company states that Android phones would be turned into seismometers and could detect if the earthquake occurs. The system would send signals to the alerting system in advance.
Google said, “We call this the Android Earthquake Alerting System…As a first step, the earthquakes that this system detects will be used to improve the speed and accuracy of earthquake information on Google Search. And in the near future, we’ll use this technology to send early alerts to Android users in impacted areas.”
Most smartphones have little accelerometers that can actually sense earthquakes. “They’re even sensitive enough to detect the P-wave, which is the first wave that comes out of an earthquake and is typically much less damaging than the S-wave which comes afterward,” Google added to the blog post.
Google will send a signal to the earthquake detection server of Google. And if the phone detects that there might be an earthquake. The server will get the data from multiple phones and figure out if there is actually an earthquake.
The company said, “We’re essentially racing the speed of light (which is roughly the speed at which signals from phone travel) against the speed of an earthquake.”
You could find if there is an earthquake by searching for an “earthquake near me” in the search bar of Google. It would grant you relevant results along with the measures to follow afterward.
