[MikeMarsUK]

Mac Laptops wanted in Earthquake Zones!

Carl Christensen (who you should know from the various CPDN projects) has just promoted the Quake Catcher Network into open-alpha testing.

QCN Alpha Test

I think he's looking for Mac laptops in earthquake zones (such as California). Many Mac laptops contain an accelerometer which can be used to detect seismic waves. This is a non-cpu intensive project - it just sits in the background while you run other Boinc tasks.

The Quake Catcher Network (QCN) will soon employ existing networked laptops and desktops to form the world's largest high-density, distributed computing seismic network. Costs for this network will be low compared to traditional networks because the QCN will use 1) strong motion sensors (accelerometers) already internal to many laptops and 2) nearly identical low-cost universal serial bus (USB) accelerometers for use with desktops. The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC!) provides a free, proven paradigm for involving the public in large-scale computational research projects. As evidenced by the SETI@home program and others, individuals are especially willing to donate their unused computing power to projects that they deem relevant, worthwhile, and educational. The client- and server-side software rapidly monitors incoming seismic signals, detects the magnitudes and locations of significant earthquakes, and may even provide early warnings to other computers and users before they can feel the earthquake.

The open-source software will provide the client-user with a screen-saver displaying seismic data recorded on their laptop, recently detected earthquakes, and general information about earthquakes and the geosciences. Furthermore, this project will install USB sensors in K-12 classrooms as an educational tool for teaching science. Through a variety of interactive experiments students will learn about earthquakes and the hazards earthquakes pose. For example, students can learn how the vibrations of an earthquake decrease with distance by jumping up and down at increasing distances from the sensor and plotting the decreased amplitude of the seismic signal measured on their computer. We hope to include an audio component so that students can hear and better understand the difference between low and high frequency seismic signals. The QCN will provide a natural way to engage students and the public in earthquake detection and research.

[reader50]

This one should have a separate thread, so I split it off.

[zombie67]

Do not attach without reading the forum there first. Without the project fixing something first, it will screw up your global prefs for all projects, and requires a bunch of manual work to fix.

[MikeMarsUK]

I think the preferences issue has been sorted - but still worthwhile reading the forums. In particular the requirement to only run-when-idle may be problematic for many users (typing on the keyboard produces noise which confuses the accelerometer, hence it is only supposed to run when nobody is typing).

Nevertheless, one of the most interesting boinc projects I've encountered...