Google has a novel solution: an Android phone-powered earthquake alert system. Most of us are already carrying potential sensors in our pockets, making the general population a big untapped resource for detecting potential earthquakes as they happen. That’s because the accelerometers in our smartphones, paired with location data, are sensitive enough to detect the P-wave: which is the first wave that comes out of an earthquake and usually much less destructive than the S-wave that follows.

“If the phone detects something that it thinks may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to our earthquake detection server, along with a coarse location of where the shaking occurred. The server then combines information from many phones to figure out if an earthquake is happening. We’re essentially racing the speed of light (which is roughly the speed at which signals from a phone travel) against the speed of an earthquake. And lucky for us, the speed of light is much faster!”

Because the technology already exists in our phones, all Google had to do to activate it was build earthquake detection into the operating system. WHen it’s up and running, the Android Earthquake Alerts System will become “the world’s largest earthquake detection network,” giving users a minute or so of warning before the quake hits. That may not sound like much, but it could be all you need to get out of a high-risk location, get to your children from across the yard, or find the sturdiest furniture in your house to hide under.

Distributed through Google Play Services for every Android phone running 5.0 and up, it’s now active on 94 percent of 2.5 billion Google Play Android devices. All you have to do to use it is turn on the Google Location Services switch in the Android settings.

In California, this feature will work with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to send the alerts via the existing ShakeAlert system, which traditionally uses signals from more than 700 seismometers installed across the state. That means all Android users in the state will soon become millions of new sensors providing data and receiving alerts.

In other places that don’t have sophisticated ground networks of seismometers, the system will act as an earthquake watch system. “To start, we’ll use this technology to share a fast, accurate view of the impacted area on Google Search. When you look up ‘earthquake’ or ‘earthquake near me,’ you’ll find relevant results for your area, along with helpful resources on what to do after an earthquake.”

Feeling left out as an iPhone user? Make sure you’ve turned on emergency and government alerts under Settings > Notifications. ShakeAlert is continuing to expand with new partners in states like Oregon and Washington, and maybe Apple will jump in with a similar system of its own sometime soon.

The post Google is Turning Android Phones Into a Global Earthquake Detection Network first appeared on Dornob.

Even the earliest building blueprints included considerations for what was happening in the world at the time. For example, forts like Brimstone Hill Fortress on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts were intentionally placed on higher ground so as to provide their occupants with optimal views of approaching invaders. Even in the medieval age of castles, monarchs included lookout towers, moats, and other seemingly impenetrable lines of defense to serve specific purposes. Later, the idea of urban safety influenced designs for municipal buildings and residential housing alike. Today we have a different kind of enemy to protect against: individuals who perpetrate mass shootings or other types of terror attacks.

As a result of these attacks, we’re already seeing huge changes in urban planning. This encompasses infrastructure to mitigate attacks on high-rise buildings from car and other streetside bombs. It also entails putting barriers up around buildings and monuments. However, these steps do little to protect against the damage one might cause once they’re inside those buildings.

The statistics are alarming to say the least. As of December 1st, 2019, there have been 385 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA). That’s an average of more than one mass shooting per day. Even worse, 29 of these incidents resulted in mass murders, which begs the question, “What can we do about it?” The answer might just be in architectural protection.

This idea integrates more than typical safety precautions that protect against crime, such as placing bars on the windows or installing deadbolts. In fact, it requires an entirely new way of thinking about architecture. That’s because terror attacks and shootings (and even mass stabbings) happen in a second. There’s no time to rely on a police response. Studies of mass shootings in recent years calculate the average time between an attacker entering the building and the end of the shooting is less than ten minutes. Crisis architecture means installing systems that work to save lives by offering protection the moment a crisis begins.

Although there have been attacks in workplaces, churches, and even movie theaters before, the dozens of school shootings in just the past decade make for the best example of how crisis architecture could prevent tragedies in the future. Learning from past attacks, schools recognize the need to be able to lock classrooms from the inside, easily lockdown an entire campus, and use cameras to spot attackers before they even enter the building. Unfortunately, measures like these have mostly been met with uncertainty by school districts for several reasons, including issues with student privacy, lack of viable information about what works, and high costs.

Crisis architecture is the idea that systems can be standardized and integrated from the blueprint stage rather than by looking towards temporary solutions for individual situations. This allows all the systems within the building to work together in a discreet and fluid way as a functional part of the overall design.

Specifically, War on the Rocks identifies eight key functionalities that would maximize physical defenses for public buildings.

1. Enable Creation of Distance: This basically means improving traffic flow within the building by incorporating more corridors and stairways to handle mass migrations.
2. Safe Exit from Multiple Points: The design should provide multiple avenues for safely getting out of the building in the case of an attack.
3. Incorporate Angles to Limit a Shooter’s Line of Sight: Build in natural and appealing blockades that limit endless site in long hallways or from a doorway. This gives victims places to seek shelter and limits an attacker’s ability to target people.
4. Provide Adequate Cover and Concealment: This includes the incorporation of bullet-proof features, as well as wall and furniture placement for better concealment.
5. Enable Rapid Hardening of a Facility: This covers systems such as deadbolts, window coverings, and ballistic doors that automatically engage at the sound of an alarm.
6. Implement “Human-Centered Design” Concepts: Work with the basic human fight-or-flight response to predict how people will act during a crisis.
7. Training and Design Need to be Mutually Supporting: This means coordinating crisis training with the infrastructure in ways that make it possible to either stay in one’s current location or quickly and safely escape.
8. Integrate Systems to Increase the Situational Awareness of First Responders: Installation of systems that give first responders the information they need.

So the question remains, given the desired level of security and all the associated costs, is crisis architecture the way of the future?

The post Is “Crisis Architecture” the Way of the Future? first appeared on Dornob.

An improvement upon a previous SmartHalo product, the SmartHalo 2 is an all-in-one connected device that gives you five highly convenient new functions: navigation, an ear-piercing alarm, fitness trackers, a bright headlight, and a personal assistant. Designed by cyclists, for cyclists, the add-on securely locks onto your handlebars, and only your unique HaloKey can unlock it for removal. A mount adapter accessory even makes it possible to easily transfer the device from one bike to another, which is especially great when you’re traveling and using rental or share bikes.

Consisting of little more than a simple interface and touch screen, this smart bike accessory aims to make your ride a lot safer with clear route navigation signals, guiding you with the “halo” of lights around the screen’s outer rim. Easy to see and understand, it eliminates the need to view maps and street names on your phone, and you can rest easy knowing won’t ever miss audio instructions due to background noise. Unlike other bike GPS devices, you also don’t need to preload maps on this one. The SmartHalo uses Google to navigate instead, though you can customize your routes if you prefer certain road types or want to avoid busy streets and hills.

A powerful front light, now five times brighter than the original version, will automatically turn on and shut itself off when needed thanks to an onboard sensor, so you’ll never have to worry about accidentally running down the batteries, either. The 250-lumens light is strong enough to meet even the strictest of European bicycle lighting laws, featuring normal, blinking, and pulse modes. You can set it to come on for all rides, only at night, or manually.

The device recognizes you by the SmartHalo app running in the background of your phone. If someone else tries to mess with your bike while it’s locked up, it’ll emit a 110-dB alarm, which is loud enough to send most potential thieves running. If your phone dies, no worries — you can simply input your custom “Tapcode,” a combination of long and short taps, to deactivate the alarm.

The SmartHalo’s “Assistant” function basically stands in for your phone while you’re riding, so you can keep it tucked safely away where it’s not in danger of getting wet or becoming a distraction. You can also see who’s texting, calling, or messaging you and receive incoming difficult weather notifications on here, or turn notifications off if you’d rather not be bothered at all.

Quick-touch shortcuts make it easy to answer calls, select saved destinations, or even emit horn sounds while you’re on the go. Plus, you can measure cycling metrics like speed, distance, elevation, calories, time, and how much CO2 your ride saved with the SmartHalo’s fitness tracker, which automatically collects data from every ride.

The SmartHalo 2’s most recent Kickstarter campaign raised over $1.7 million CAD. While pre-orders are now closed, you can still keep an eye on the official website for updates on the product’s retail debut.

The post Instant Smart Bike Accessory Adds Five New Functions to Your Ride first appeared on Dornob.

Wouldn’t you rather open your eyes to the scent of freshly brewed espresso or invigorating peppermint? A new kind of alarm clock aims to stimulate your senses with pleasant smells, sights, and sounds instead of prompting you to hurl your iPhone across the room. The Sensorwake Trio lets you choose from nine scents, five melodies, and a few different dynamic lighting options to get you going in the morning.

“What if you could wake up happier, more motivated, and ready to take on each day? With Sensorwake Trio, you choose from a wide variety of smells, like coffee, the beach, forest, or peppermint. Change them out as often as you change your mind. Stop hating your alarm clock. Start making your mornings better.”

Refined based on early feedback, the second-generation Sensorwake Trio design uses silent, oil-free scent capsules for easy operation. Just plug in the clock, insert a capsule into the port on top, and activate your alarm. The clock employs both cold and dry diffusion to release fragrances at preprogrammed times, and since there’s no heat involved, each capsule can be used up to 30 times. The scent choices include cappuccino, seaside, peppermint, pine forest, orange juice, cookie, tropical fruit, grass meadow, and chocolate factory.

All of the fragrances were designed in France by Givaudan, an international leader in fragrance and flavor creation, and all of them are described in great detail on the Sensorwake Trio Kickstarter page. For example, the “Cookie” scent features top notes of cocoa butter and chocolate chip, middle notes of coconut and nuts, and base notes of caramel and vanilla. Capsules can be purchased on the Sensorwake website when you need to stock up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_363dmIdZRE

One minute after the scent begins to waft over to your sleeping nose, the clock begins to light up, mimicking the effects of sunrise. Then, three minutes into the process, the sound you selected will start to play. These “motivating melodies” are the opposite of the standard alarm clock sounds, aiming for a calm and uplifting vibe rather than a harsh one that shocks you into wakefulness.

“It has cartridges that release different smells… like, ‘Honey, wake up! I just made fresh croissants for you! Just kidding, it’s time for work,’” joked Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show.

Founder and CEO Guillame Rolland was just 18 years old when Google chose the project he started in a garage as one of its “Top 15 Inventions That Can Change the World” at their annual science fair.

Want to nab one for yourself? The Sensorwake Trio was 100 percent funded on Kickstarter in just three hours. At the time of writing, pre-orders are still available, but if you miss out on backing the project, it’ll likely become available to the public around the same time the Kickstarter rewards start shipping in late 2018.

The post Sensorwake Trio: The Smell-Based Alarm Clock first appeared on Dornob.

The bureaucratic pain involved in recreating that original wallet led to the extremely versatile Volterman, which, among other things, boasts a built-in alarm system so you can find it when you’ve left it behind in a restaurant. When you move out of range, a helpful warning message will be sent to your phone. If it’s your phone you’ve misplaced, on the other hand, and you can’t find it in its usual hiding place behind the couch cushions, don’t panic. Just push a button on the wallet and listen for the ringing, which it will do even if it’s on silent mode.

The Volterman will also alert you when a sticky-fingered pickpocket has their grubby paws on it. This feature is especially useful to anyone traveling outside the country, where a wallet’s contents can’t just be replaced on the fly. The smart wallet has even been equipped with a clever theft-detection camera. When the Volterman is in “Lost” mode, it’ll take a photo of anyone who opens it and email you a copy of their mug. If a thief tries to electronically steal your data or identity, they’ll be met by the smart wallet’s built-in RFID-blocking system. Ingenious!

Small but mighty, the Volterman has also been fitted with an embedded power bank, which allows you to charge your devices on-the-go either wirelessly or with a hidden cable. That means no more fumbling for chargers and searching hopefully-yet-frantically for a free outlet to use. The wallet also features GPS tracking and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities, keeping you connected no matter where you are in the world. Say goodbye to exorbitant roaming charges.

There are three siblings in the Volterman family, and we have a feeling you’ll be reluctant to play favorites. They are the “Cardholder,” the “Bifold,” and the “Travel Wallet.” They share virtually all of the same features, though each model’s power bank has a slightly different capacity because of size differences.

The Volterman reached its $45,000 crowdfunding goal on Indiegogo in a couple of hours. Its inventors seemed to anticipate this, though, describing the wallet as “the epitome of market-leading innovation and technological advance.” They’re especially proud of its technological features, which are “all wrapped up in a slim, lightweight, and stylish design.”

“Slim” is no exaggeration. The bifold version of the wallet is only 11 millimeters thick and weighs just 120 grams. It’s also completely waterproof, in case you find yourself in torrential rain. All Volterman wallets are constructed from either genuine Nappa leather or “superior-quality” vegan faux leather, and they are also fully compatible with both iOS and Android devices.

The post Volterman: The World’s Most Powerful Smart Wallet first appeared on Dornob.

The Neuroon Open sleep mask uses a set of built-in sensors to collect data throughout the night, documenting how much time your brain spends emitting alpha, beta, theta, and delta waves. The mask also monitors your heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, and movement. The system processes this information and converts into an easy-to-read set of sleep analytics, which tells you exactly how much deep, light, and REM sleep you got. If you aren’t using those eight hours as efficiently as you could be, the Neuroon Open will even give you some helpful tips on how to improve your nightly habits.

The mask’s Kickstarter page explains, “After each sleep you will be given a short test in which you estimate your sleep quality and sleepiness after waking on VAS. This self-evaluation system records changes in the subjective reception of your sleep. This is then combined with metabolic and sleep-staging data in order to provide information about the best sleep pattern to suit you.”

“As a voluntary extra option, you will have the possibility to try two short games which measure your mental capacities after sleep. The working memory test will check your perception and working memory condition upon waking. The cognition test will check your cognitive capability. During the first ten days, Neuroon Open will gather data from the tests to personalize its analytic software. After this period, you will be informed about your daily results compared to the average, allowing you to choose the best sleep pattern for your top mental condition.”

To see your “sleep score,” simply put on the mask when you go to bed and check the accompanying smartphone app in the morning. If you’re not a big fan of traditional alarms, you can instruct the Neuroon Open to simulate the light of a natural sunrise when it’s time to wake up. Heavy sleepers needn’t worry, either. Anyone who isn’t awoken by the mask’s lights will be greeted by a set of gentle vibrations and a final audio alert from their phone. The best part is, the Neuroon Open lets you choose which stage of sleep you’d prefer to wake up from, meaning you’ll never have to interrupt you deepest slumbers again!

It’s easy to confuse this gadget for something out of a science fiction movie, but we assure you that the Neuroon Open is the real deal. The mask can also be programmed to emit a series of lights, sounds, and vibrations that help induce lucid dreaming, a metacognitive state in which a person realizes that they’re asleep and is able to control what happens in their dream. If that sounds a little too intense for you, use the mask to guide you through a few mindfulness meditation sessions instead.

The most sci-fi element of them all? Probably the fact that you can connect the Neuroon Open to your smart home system to control your house as you sleep. Set it to automatically turn your bedroom or bathroom lights on if you wake up in the middle of the night, or have the mask lower the temperature when you enter REM sleep.

The Neuroon Open was designed using open-source code, which allows anyone to access it and take a closer look at its inner workings. If you’re particularly tech-savvy, you can even program your own applets for it! The mask is being funded on Kickstarter until July 27th, so be sure to order one for the early bird price of $139 while you still can.

The post Hack Your Sleep with This Dream-Enhancing Mask first appeared on Dornob.

The post Simulated Sunlight Alarm Clock: Wake Up Slowly & Naturally first appeared on Dornob.

With no time display, this minimalist wooden clock design won’t give you anxiety about how much time you have left to sleep if you wake up and glance at it in the middle of the night. It will, however, awaken you at a set time in a rather unusual and potentially disturbing way: with the sounds of a woodpecker.

The Alarming Clock by Natalie Duckett and Lee Murray features alarms to signal both ends of the sleep cycle, providing an alert when it’s time to get ready for bed as well as in the morning. A digital time display is hidden in the base, but accessible when you need it.

But it’s the manner with which The Alarming Clock wakes you up that makes it so unusual: it has a wooden ‘beak’ that emulates the tapping of a woodpecker.

The exact sounds the clock makes vary depending on what you place it next to. A soft surface might produce a very gentle sound, a hollow glass will ring, and a heavy object will make you think there’s really a woodpecker pecking away right beside your bed.

From Mocoloco:

“The Alarming Clock is made from natural materials to reflect that sleep is a natural process. Each clock is hand crafted from oak and assembled on a made-to-order basis. Touch sensitive technology means users can easily switch off the alarm when rising and shining from a full night’s sleep.”

“The Alarming Clock is the creation of Scottish designers Natalie Duckett and Lee Murray. Founder Natalie explains: ‘The Alarming Clock is a development of my original design and concept launched as a university project back in 2010. Due to the amount of interest I received I decided to keep working on it and develop it into a product that could be sold.’”

“Lee talks about how the clock has been developed: ‘A lot of the success from the original Alarming Clock celebrated the fact that the clock’s time face had been completely removed and this had to be continued. The time face is still not on show but has been discretely placed on the underside of the product.'”

The post “Alarming Clock” Sounds Like a Woodpecker first appeared on Dornob.

The post Sound Asleep: Silent Vibrating Alarm Clock, Deaf by Design first appeared on Dornob.