The open source takes on the earthquake early warning project

I think the world is trying to tell me something. As I prepared to write this story about the Linux Foundation hosting the OpenEEW earthquake early warning system from the open source Grillo, I was hit by the worst earthquake in North Carolina in over a century. Of course, a 5.1-magnitude earthquake hardly deserves a story in California, but here was big news. And honestly, any system that can help warn people of earthquakes is a good thing.

While my small earthquake did not cause real damage, it could kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars in infrastructure. Any early warning can save lives and this is why countries like Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have National Earthquake Early Warning Systems (EWW).

Earthquakes often hit developing countries at their worst due to poor construction and infrastructure. For example, the Haiti earthquake in 2010 killed more than 200,000 people and caused more than $ 10 billion in damage.

Timely alerts can save lives in communities where earthquakes pose the greatest threat. EEW systems provide public alerts in some countries. Even a few seconds can make a difference. But, says the Linux Foundation, “approximately three billion people worldwide live under the threat of an earthquake and do not have access to nationwide systems, which can cost more than $ 1 billion.” OpenEEW wants to help reduce these costs, speed up its deployments around the world, and help save many lives. “The OpenEEW project represents the best of technology and open source,” said Mike Dolan, Vice President of the Lynx Foundation and General Manager of Projects. “We are excited to be able to host and support such an important project and community at the Linux Foundation. The open source community can enable the rapid development and deployment of these critical systems throughout the world.” The OpenEEW project consists of several basic components of the Internet of Things: sensors and firmware that can quickly detect and transmit ground motion; Real-time detection systems that can be deployed on various platforms from Kubernetes to Raspberry Pi; And user EEW apps.

Google’s early warning system uses Android phones’ built-in accelerometers to detect earthquakes. It then alerts Google’s earthquake detection server, which coordinates the data to find the epicenter. Then it sends alerts.

Grillo OpenEEW’s sensors consist of a high-performance micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometer, a grid connector, a loud buzzer, and 3 bright Neopixel LEDS. It has already proven to be as good as seismometers that cost 60 times more. For example, OpenEEW detected the last 4.8 earthquake in Puerto Rico as it did.

There are two important differences between Grillo sensors and those in smartphones. Andres Meera, founder of Grillo Restaurant, explained that while the phone approach would work well in urban areas, “Google’s smartphone solution does not work well in seismic areas where earthquakes happen in sparsely populated areas (New Zealand, Nepal, etc.). Need for stable terminals. ”Additionally,“ OpenEEW sensors feature high-quality accelerometers and are therefore more suitable for researchers or other applications. ”

OpenEEW sensors have already been deployed since 2017 in Mexico, Chile, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. Grillo’s sensors have already generated more than 1 terabyte of data.

IBM, the founding member of OpenEEW, is deploying more sensors in Puerto Rico. These work together using IBM’s cloud-hosted Node-Red dashboard. IBM is also creating a Docker container version of the detection component, which can be deployed to Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud.

The goal of the project, besides helping save lives, is to encourage data makers, data scientists, business people and seismologists to build EEWs in places like Nepal, New Zealand, Ecuador and other remote earthquake-prone regions. OpenEEW also hopes that open source developers and engineers can help develop sensor design; Improving earthquake detection and characterization through machine learning, and creating new ways to communicate alerts to people.

Projects by Google and OpenEEW will help make earthquakes more survivable for everyone. This is one goal we can all agree on.

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