I-Corps: Crowdsource sensing of earthquakes

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是减少未来地震的影响。 这个基于智能手机的众包传感应用程序提供地震警报和震动危险数据。其愿景是为地球仪提供地震预警，并收集有关建筑性能的数据。 它可以用来减慢和停止列车以减少脱轨的可能性，隔离危险化学品和机械以减少损害，将数据转移到安全存储，并向个人发出信号以转移到安全的地方。 在建筑物中记录的震动数据也可以用来评估建筑物在地震中的性能。 在较小的非破坏性地震中记录的震动可用于预测较大事件中的建筑性能。 由支持应用程序的手机记录的数据可能被结构工程师用来评估建筑物，并可被保险业用来设定保费。这个I-Corps项目开发了一个基于智能手机的全球地震网络。 该技术使用机器学习技术来区分地震和个人/私人智能手机上记录的其他震动源，并嵌入到全球超过25万用户下载的应用程序中。 当手机检测到地震时，它会通知中央服务器。 服务器基于多个电话检测来确认地震，并估计地震的大小和位置。 然后可以向用户发出警报。 与此同时，手机记录了地震时地面的震动。 这些时间序列数据可用于一系列目的，包括地震过程的基础研究和建筑物的表征。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project it to reduce the impact of future earthquakes. This smartphone-based crowdsource sensing application provides earthquake alerts and shaking hazard data. The vision is to provide earthquake early warning around the globe, and collect data on building performance. Warnings can be used to slow and stop trains reducing the likelihood of derailment, to isolate hazardous chemicals and machinery to reduce damage, to move data to safe storage, and to signal individuals to move to a safe place. Shaking data recoded in buildings can also be used to assess the performance of a building during an earthquake. Recorded shaking in smaller non-damaging quakes can be used to predict building performance in larger events. The data recorded by application enabled phones can potentially be used by structural engineers to assess buildings, and can be used by the insurance industry to set premiums.This I-Corps project develops a global smartphone-based seismic network. The technology uses machine learning techniques to distinguish between earthquakes and other sources of shaking as recorded on personal/private smartphones, and is embedded in the application that has been downloaded by over 250,000 users around the world. When a phone detects an earthquake, it notifies a central server. The server confirms the earthquake based on multiple phone detection, and estimates the size and location. An alert could then be issued to users. At the same time, the phone records the ground shaking during the earthquake. This timeseries data can be used for a range of purposes including fundamental research on earthquake processes, and characterization of buildings.