Freerunner and Earthquakes

Richard Guest quiffman at gmail.com
Sun Apr 20 01:01:35 CEST 2008


GPS essentially *is* accurate timing... GPS satellites are flying atomic clocks.
Trimble has a good GPS tutorial - http://www.trimble.com/gps/index.shtml

Almost all Digital Seismometers have a GPS interface to get the
accurate timing they require.

On 20/04/2008, Brandon Kruger <bmk789 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat April 19 2008 5:52:14 pm Ortwin Regel wrote:
> > Yes, AFAIK GPS requires accurate time to function.
> >
> > Ortwin
> >
> > On 4/19/08, Brandon Kruger <bmk789 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Sat April 19 2008 5:29:50 pm Richard Guest wrote:
> > > > Yeah, it's an interesting idea.
> > > > I read something similar on Evil Mad Scientist
> > > > http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/seismometry2
> > > >
> > > > The detection/pinpointing part requires both accurate detection of
> > > > shaking and timing - obviously the timing is critical for
> > > > triangulation.
> > > >
> > > > I think the *cool* factor for something like this would be the ability
> > > > to measure a persons actual physical experience of an earthquake.
> There
> > > > are *lots* of existing seismometers that will do the *fixed* point
> > > > detection a whole lot better, but none (that I know of) that will be
> > > > (relatively) unobtrusive to the users daily life and still give an
> > > > actual measurement
> > >
> > > of
> > >
> > > > physical shaking intensity.
> > > >
> > > > You shouldn't have to wait that long for e/q info... In New Zealand
> the
> > > > news media mostly regurgitate what we post on
> http://www.geonet.org.nz/
> > > > There's near-realtime shaking info on the front page, and if there's
> > > > actually an earthquake people can submit a "Felt Report" to tell us
> how
> > > > they experienced it.
> > > > It would be really cool to see how a personal accelerometer trace
> > > > correlates to the fuzzy-logic of the felt report!
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > End thoughts...
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Rich
> > > >
> > > > On 20/04/2008, Brandon Kruger <bmk789 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > After recently having a 5.2 earthquake here in the Midwest, I
> > > > > realized the potential in the Openmoko for detecting/pinpointing
> > > > > earthquakes. What this
> > > > > is mostly dependant on is the accuracy of the accelerometers in the
> > > > > Freerunner.  From what I've read, Macbooks' accelerometers and
> detect
> > >
> > > and
> > >
> > > > > measure earthquakes fairly accurately. [1]  If the Freerunner's
> > > > > accelerometers are precise enough and it could be attached to a
> fixed
> > > > > ground,
> > > > > we could use GPS to retreive an accurate location and record and
> > > > > upload accelerometer data to a database.  Many different devices
> > > > > running this could
> > > > > provide intensity levels at many different locations and (at least
> > >
> > > fairly
> > >
> > > > > accurately), pinpoint an epicenter.  This data could become useful
> to
> > > > > researchers and would provide information about an earthquake faster
> > >
> > > than
> > >
> > > > > almost any news network would provide.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thoughts?
> > > > >
> > > > > [1] http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > ----
> > > > > Brandon Kruger <bmk789 at gmail.com>
> > > > > http://onedollarlinux.com
> > > > > BLOG - http://onedollarlinux.com/personal/
> > > > >
> > > > > Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
> > > > > See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
> > > > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > Openmoko community mailing list
> > > > > community at lists.openmoko.org
> > > > > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
> > >
> > > Wouldn't GPS provide an accurate time?  I thought GPS sends its own
> > > official time, like an atomic clock.  I could be wrong.  Anyone know
> more
> > > about this?
> > >
> > > --
> > > ----
> > > Brandon Kruger <bmk789 at gmail.com>
> > > http://onedollarlinux.com
> > > BLOG - http://onedollarlinux.com/personal/
> > >
> > > Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
> > > See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Openmoko community mailing list
> > community at lists.openmoko.org
> > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
>
> When I used a bluetooth GPS with my laptop, I notices the gpsd output had a
> different time than my system clock showed, so I assume GPS provides its own
> clock.
>
> --
> ----
> Brandon Kruger <bmk789 at gmail.com>
> http://onedollarlinux.com
> BLOG - http://onedollarlinux.com/personal/
>
> Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
> See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
>




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