It is with dubiously raised eyebrows that we bring you this gem: using accelerometers in hard disks to detect seismic activity, IBM can divine a wealth of natural disaster-related information. These hard disk sensors are so sensitive that they can detect the tiniest of vibrations. The seismic data, along with the sensor's geographical location, are then sent to a mainframe computer to be processed. IBM can then interpret that data to tell emergency response teams where an earthquake hit with the most magnitude. "It tells them I need to go to this school; I don't need to worry about this bridge," explains Bob Friedland, one of the patent's inventors.
While this technology doesn't go as far as predicting the next major earthquake, it can predict the likelihood and direction of a tsunami following an earthquake. Presumably, though, this system can detect with greater accuracy the small foreshock tremors that can precede large earthquakes.
For more information, feel free to read through the patent.
IBM patents system that uses hard drives to accurately measure earthquakes, predict tsunamis originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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