Touch Diamond: Now Available With Built-In Earthquake Sensing Goodness
It was surely only a matter of time before an intrepid developer made the logical leap between using an accelerometer for vital ball-in-the-hole games and using an accelerometer to check for earthquakes.
If you’re a seismophobic Touch Diamond owner, you’ll be relieved to know that a free download is now available to feed your anxiety. Seismo converts the jiggles of the phone in your pocket vibrations of distant earthquakes into a pretty graph which you can show your friends, or just feel anxious about.
Although the app’s appeal could be generously described as ‘niche’, it is - in principle - not as useless as it initially appears. The Economist recently explained that researchers at Stanford University are using a international network of volunteers’ laptop accelerometers to detect earthquakes in much greater detail than conventional seismometers.
Happily, the software is able to distinguish between the frantic repetitive motions that accompany some users’ surfing habits, and the vibrations of an oncoming cataclysm.
The Quake Catcher Network (QCN) uses the same distributed techniques as the easily mocked SETI@home project (which has millions of Star Wars fans harnessing their spare computing power on a fruitless intergalactic search for the real-life Yoda).
However, while SETI participants are desperate for a Jodie Foster like moment of extra-terrestrial epiphany, volunteers in the QCN are more likely to get early warning of imminent earth-shaking somewhere else on this planet.
If you still need further inspiration, here’s a thrilling video of the Touch Diamond app in action…
Source: PocketNow
Tags: earthquakes, software, Touch Diamond
