3-29-2008 Quake-Catcher Network - Quake@home

[dmcowen674]

Interesting

Is there a standalone program that can access this "drop sensor" built into laptop hard drives?


3-29-2008 Laptops track Earth's shakes, rattles and rolls

A geoscientist devises a way to boost computing power.

Erik Vance

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA ? A seismologist at Stanford University in California has developed a computer program for tracking earthquakes in real time. It uses thousands of volunteers' computers and may someday be fast enough to issue warnings just before an earthquake strikes.

Quake-Catcher Network, as it's called, uses the accelerometers built into many new computers, which sense when a computer is dropped so that the hard drive can be shut down. But seismologist Jesse Lawrence found that the sensors could also pick up on more subtle movement. Thus was born the latest iteration in distributed computing, which turns the unused computing power of thousands of home computers into a giant supercomputer.

The most popular distributed computing program, SETI@home, searches for signals from extraterrestrial intelligence. Quake-Catcher looks instead at the inner workings of earthquakes. Little is known about how seismic waves travel and refract deep in Earth's crust, and modelling this movement accurately takes enormous computing power, which can be generated by combining many different users on the network.

 

[Coquito]

No frag monitoring?

Earthquakes aren't really prevalent around here, but it is a very interesting concept. Oh well.

 

[RaySun2Be]

Interesting concept. I wonder how they filter out normal bumps and shakes from something that might indicate a tremor or such.

Found this on their site:

Laptops connect to the Quake Catcher Network over the internet. Typically, when the QCN software is running, there isn't much need to transfer the data to our headquarters. Instead, the laptop monitors the data localy for new high-energy signals and only sends a single time and a single significance measurement for high energy signals. If our server receives a bunch of these times and significance measurements all at once, then it is likely that an earthquake is happening. If the server receives only a time and significance measurement from one laptop, then the server knows the laptop was shaken by something smaller and more local (like your sister running by, or the door slamming).

Does my laptop have a sensor inside?

If you have a Macintosh laptop manufactured after January 1, 2005 then you probably do.

If you have an IBM Thinkpad manufactured after 2003, then you probably do.

Soon we may have a web-based open-source program to tell you whether your laptop has an accessible seismometer or not.

Quake-Catcher Network

 

[Alyx]

I wonder how large a user base it would take before this became reliable. Seems data on normal bumps and shakes could be rulled out based on comparing to global data. But if an actual earth quake happened I'd think the amount the laptop would feel would depend a lot on what it was sitting on, a desk that rattles and moves would register a stronger quake than a laptop sitting on rubber.

Movement and shakes in an earth quake would make large errors in the data that would be harder to detect without having a huge number of participants.

 

[Rudy Toody]

I have been running QCN Alpha Test for two days. I've gotten 96 credits. I love it.

The graphics let you look at the globe locations of quakes. It also has several graphs of the sensor data.

I have this sensor installed on a quad and the Boinc app uses one slot 24/7. However, I also get the use of four other slots for other Boinc apps.

 

[Alyx]

Does the quad have a hard drive sensor?

 

[Rudy Toody]

Originally posted by: Alyx
Does the quad have a hard drive sensor?

No. I bought a JoyWarrior from the site. It's usb.

 

[Alyx]

That little thing is pretty cool! They've also got lesson plans and stuff for schools so I forwarded it to my gf, maybe one of her science teacher friends can incorporate it in their class.

 

[Assimilator1]

Interesting project

Rudy
I take it the Joy warrior is an accelerometer, how much was it?
Btw can you give us a link? Google gave a stack of irrelevant ones it seems.

 

[petrusbroder]

Joined - with my MacBook - which has a built in sensor ...

 

[Rudy Toody]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Interesting project

Rudy
I take it the Joy warrior is an accelerometer, how much was it?
Btw can you give us a link? Google gave a stack of irrelevant ones it seems.

Here is the link.

If you are a teacher/student, the cost is 5.00US. All others pay 49.00US, which subsidizes the educational rates.

The JoyWarrior is also available in Europe. However, you have to do a little soldering.

EDIT: Welcome, Peter! Now I won't be so lonely!

 

[TAandy]

came across this about a year ago.
or, first mentions of it anyway. then found out my lappy couldn't do it. no sensor.
don't have many earthquakes in this part of the world, thank goodness

 

[petrusbroder]

I agree for the earth quake sentiment.

I was so surprised to see the evidence that there was an magnitude 3 (Richter scale) earthquake only 2 or so months ago less than 1 200km (approx 750 miles) south of us ...

 

[Rudy Toody]

I just finished stepping rabrittain through the installation and now he is up and running, too.

3 active members, and climbing! 150 Cobblestones per day!

The only way to generate more than 50 per day, is to install more sensors. It doesn't make sense to have more than one at any location.

Suggested locations:

Home
Work
Laptop
Summer place
GFs place
Marriage Counselor
Attorney's Office
and under ex-wife's bed?

Edit: When I wrote the last line I was thinking about my 2nd exe.

If I had installed a sensor under her bed, there would have been so many trickles to QNC that they would have thought that it was a denial-of-service attack!

 

[TAandy]

Originally posted by: Rudy Toody
I just finished stepping rabrittain through the installation and now he is up and running, too.

3 active members, and climbing! 150 Cobblestones per day!

The only way to generate more than 50 per day, is to install more sensors. It doesn't make sense to have more than one at any location.

Suggested locations:

Home
Work
Laptop
Summer place
GFs place
Marriage Counselor
Attorney's Office
and under ex-wife's bed?

Edit: When I wrote the last line I was thinking about my 2nd exe.

If I had installed a sensor under her bed, there would have been so many trickles to QNC that they would have thought that it was a denial-of-service attack!

just as long as they don't put sensors at the bottom of a bottle.
mine might go off the scale!!!

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Rudy Toody

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Interesting project

Rudy
I take it the Joy warrior is an accelerometer, how much was it?
Btw can you give us a link? Google gave a stack of irrelevant ones it seems.

Here is the link.

If you are a teacher/student, the cost is 5.00US. All others pay 49.00US, which subsidizes the educational rates.

The JoyWarrior is also available in Europe. However, you have to do a little soldering.

EDIT: Welcome, Peter! Now I won't be so lonely!

Unfortunately that is K-12 teachers and students, not higher education.

 

[Rudy Toody]

I'm getting a bunch of triggers today! I think the world is coming to an end soon!

 

[petrusbroder]

LoL! I hope not - because worlds ends hurt!

 

[rabrittain]

I'm having some fun now!

 

[Fardringle]

Originally posted by: Rudy Toody
I'm getting a bunch of triggers today! I think the world is coming to an end soon!

Ex wife #2 stopped by for a visit? :evil:

 

[Assimilator1]

Originally posted by: Rudy Toody
I just finished stepping rabrittain through the installation and now he is up and running, too.

3 active members, and climbing! 150 Cobblestones per day!

The only way to generate more than 50 per day, is to install more sensors. It doesn't make sense to have more than one at any location.

Suggested locations:

Home
Work
Laptop
Summer place
GFs place
Marriage Counselor
Attorney's Office
and under ex-wife's bed?

Edit: When I wrote the last line I was thinking about my 2nd exe.

If I had installed a sensor under her bed, there would have been so many trickles to QNC that they would have thought that it was a denial-of-service attack!

:laugh:

Btw why would it need soldering for a USB sensor??

 

[Rudy Toody]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Btw why would it need soldering for a USB sensor??

Outside the US it comes as a kit. I have no idea why.

 

[rabrittain]

Ok ... the ppd isn't big, but this is an interesting project. We might predict a quake someday!!

 

[Rudy Toody]

US version of Sensor.

Outside US version.

 

[petrusbroder]

I really wonder how much computiong power they need to cull out the false positives.
I mean that is not hard, but it is a tremendous amount of data ...