Moving on from the Genome project that used distributed computing to map the human genome far faster than would have otherwise been possible, Wired reports about the Quake Catcher Network that aims to use the accelerometers commonly built into laptops and mobile computing devices to to form the world’s largest high-density, distributed computing seismic network.
Basically the network will sense motion, determine through some smart sampling analysis and algorithms whether the motion is normal or seismic and, in the case of seismic motion, both use the data to further knowledge about earthquakes, and also as an early warning and risk analysis tool.
It’s a really cool idea and allows scientists to build a seismic network more cheaply than would normally be the case. A great example of the power of community and the network effect.
