The smartphone is a marvel of miniaturisation. Each one has multiple sensors, allowing it to determine all kinds of things about the world and its place within it.
Where it’s located. Which way up it is. How fast it’s moving. Some of them can recognise your fingerprints, your face and the words you’re speaking. This allows them to entertain us, keep us healthy, help us find our way home and much else besides.
But a growing branch of science is devoted to pooling information generated by the world’s 3.5 billion smartphones for the common good.
The latest example, launched by Google last week, is an earthquake predictor. Install it on your Android phone and you’ll become part of a worldwide experiment in seismology. By detecting early tremors, the software can help Google get early warnings out to the public.
The technology was never designed for this purpose, but science is harnessing it regardless.
One of the first academics to work in this field was Eiman Kanjo, an associate professor at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. She gave the practice a name – “mobile sensing” – and has worked on multiple projects over the years, from detecting pollution levels and environmental noise to more recent efforts to battle the spread of Covid-19.
“More than 15 years ago we were working with more primitive phones which didn’t even have GPS or Bluetooth,” she says. “We immediately spotted the opportunity with smartphones. The beauty of it was these multiple phones collecting data simultaneously, and us being able to watch that data dynamically changing in real time. It was fascinating. When phones added new sensors, such as GPS and accelerometers, we had a party. Each one brings new possibilities.”
Gyroscopes understand how our phones are oriented, switching displays from landscape to portrait mode and enabling augmented reality apps. Magnetometers measure magnetic fields, not only transforming phones into compasses, but also elementary metal detectors. Cameras and biometric sensors allow the smartphone to see, microphones allow it to hear. Other recent additions include light scanners, barometers and movement detectors.
But it’s the accelerometer, the sensor used to detect the phone’s movement, that is key to Google’s new experiment.
"We figured out [Android phones are] sensitive enough to detect earthquake waves," said Google's Marc Stogaitis in an interview with The Verge. "They usually see both key types of waves, the P wave [primary] and the S wave [secondary]. Each phone is able to detect that something like an earthquake is happening, but you need an aggregate of phones to know that for sure."
In a 2017 documentary entitled The Crowd & the Cloud, the co-founder of an environmental project in California, Brian Beveridge, gave an insight into the power of mobile sensing.
“We sometimes frighten the statisticians, because they would prefer to have pristine data from a $1 million (Dh3.67m) machine,” he says. “But if you have a million $100 machines, all spewing data into the cloud, then we can start to adjust behaviour immediately.”
Google understood that while seismometers are expensive, phones are relatively cheap and very common. When data combined from those phones is analysed, anomalies can be filtered out and the location and strength of quakes can be pinpointed. The company still stresses, however, that it’s still just an experiment for the time being.
“The basic concept has been proven to work,” says Kanjo. “But they can't risk it and say yes, we know the answer. The main issue is always scalability.”
Each phone is able to detect that something like an earthquake is happening, but you need an aggregate of phones to know that for sure
This problem has recently been seen in attempts to use apps to contain the spread of Covid-19. In small-scale experiments, track-and-trace can be shown to work. But in the real world, there’s a fear of it either failing to detect cases, or generating false positive results which can have a huge impact on society.
Fortunately, the stakes aren’t so high in the majority of mobile sensing applications. Millions of us see it at work every day as navigation apps alert us to the movement of road traffic. Smart cities use mobile sensing to change the way streets are lit, the way people park cars and how pollution is measured. There’s also a big crossover with so-called “citizen science”; smartphones helping people get involved with everything from tracking asthma attacks to monitoring mosquitos, from observing cloud patterns to saving the rainforests.
Only two things stand in the way of this science. One is the restrictions put in place by the likes of Google and Apple on the way sensors can be used.
“We have suffered a lot as developers because of these restrictions,” says Kanjo. “It’s not always easy to develop ideas when companies are in control.”
The other is the attitude of the public to their phones being used in this way; passive data sharing has gained a somewhat toxic reputation in recent years.
“The ethics are often exaggerated,” says Kanjo. “Right now, your phone company is being told that me and you are talking, and that’s far more intrusive than something like Covid contact tracing.”
Google’s earthquake app, according to Stogaitis, de-identifies the information: “We don’t need to know anything about the person that’s sending it.”
Participation in mobile sensing experiments, in fact, could almost be seen as a noble act, and certainly casts a new light on the smartphone; no longer a device centred completely on the individual, but one that can help the world understand a little more about itself.
Match info:
Portugal 1
Ronaldo (4')
Morocco 0
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Porsche Macan T: The Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 265hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,800-4,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Speed: 0-100kph in 6.2sec
Top speed: 232kph
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
On sale: May or June
Price: From Dh259,900
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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How England have scored their set-piece goals in Russia
Three Penalties
v Panama, Group Stage (Harry Kane)
v Panama, Group Stage (Kane)
v Colombia, Last 16 (Kane)
Four Corners
v Tunisia, Group Stage (Kane, via John Stones header, from Ashley Young corner)
v Tunisia, Group Stage (Kane, via Harry Maguire header, from Kieran Trippier corner)
v Panama, Group Stage (Stones, header, from Trippier corner)
v Sweden, Quarter-Final (Maguire, header, from Young corner)
One Free-Kick
v Panama, Group Stage (Stones, via Jordan Henderson, Kane header, and Raheem Sterling, from Tripper free-kick)
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
More coverage from the Future Forum
How to come clean about financial infidelity
- Be honest and transparent: It is always better to own up than be found out. Tell your partner everything they want to know. Show remorse. Inform them of the extent of the situation so they know what they are dealing with.
- Work on yourself: Be honest with yourself and your partner and figure out why you did it. Don’t be ashamed to ask for professional help.
- Give it time: Like any breach of trust, it requires time to rebuild. So be consistent, communicate often and be patient with your partner and yourself.
- Discuss your financial situation regularly: Ensure your spouse is involved in financial matters and decisions. Your ability to consistently follow through with what you say you are going to do when it comes to money can make all the difference in your partner’s willingness to trust you again.
- Work on a plan to resolve the problem together: If there is a lot of debt, for example, create a budget and financial plan together and ensure your partner is fully informed, involved and supported.
Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
The Lowdown
Kesari
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Produced by: Dharma Productions, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Anubhav Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
