openMaterials

Another great initiative from Stanford, this time involving the novel usage of accelerometers.

Quake-Catcher Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers.

It involves installing software that collects data from the computer’s accelerometer, which pings the quake-catcher networks’ server if a tremor is detected.

Current model Macintosh and Thinkpad laptops are supported, and the network is making external USB-connected accelerometers available to people who don’t have them built-in to their computers.

Here’s the ‘trigger map‘ from the past week -

Popularity: 1% [?]