Latest news with #RichardAllen
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First Post
21-07-2025
- Science
- First Post
Google turns Android phones into earthquake detectors, records 11,000 tremors on crowdsourcing
The Android Earthquake Alerts system prioritises scale over precision, leveraging the widespread use of Android smartphones, which collect motion data by default unless opted out read more Follow us on Google News Google utilised motion sensors in over two billion mobile phones from 2021 to 2024 to detect earthquakes and issued automated warnings to millions across 98 countries, revealed a Science journal analysis released last week. The analysis shows that Google's system recorded over 11,000 quakes, matching the performance of traditional seismometers. Independent earthquake researchers commend the system but call for greater transparency into Google's proprietary technology before public officials rely on it. Traditional seismometer-based alert systems exist in places like Mexico, Japan, and the US west coast. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In 2020, Google launched a crowd-sourced system using Android phones to detect early tremors. Data from its first three years, released recently, confirm its effectiveness and improvement. Google notes that annual earthquake deaths average thousands, but its mobile-based alerts have expanded access tenfold since 2019. 'It's very impressive: most countries don't have an earthquake early-warning system, and this can help provide that service,' Allen Husker, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology, was quoted as saying by Nature. However, he seeks more access to Google's data and algorithms. Google's scientists claim they're as transparent as possible, citing privacy constraints on sharing raw phone data. They told Nature that the Science paper aims to clarify the system's operations. 'That really is the origin of this paper,' says Richard Allen, a University of California, Berkeley seismologist and Google visiting faculty. 'I hope the community will recognise that and appreciate that.' How does Google's Earthquake Alerts system work? The Android Earthquake Alerts system prioritises scale over precision, leveraging the widespread use of Android smartphones, which collect motion data by default unless opted out. Google's algorithms analyse signals, accounting for regional geological and construction variations, as well as differences in phone motion sensors. Challenges persist in detecting major earthquakes. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The system underestimated two powerful 2023 Turkey quakes, sending 4.5 million warnings. After algorithm upgrades, re-analysis showed the system could have issued urgent 'TakeAction' alerts to ten million phones. 'This shows they have been working to improve the system since 2023, with tangible positive results,' says Harold Tobin, a University of Washington seismologist.
Gizmodo
17-07-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Android Phones Can Detect Earthquakes Before the Ground Starts Shaking
Since their first implementation in Mexico and Japan, earthquake early-warning (EEW) systems have provided critical advance notice of imminent earthquakes to countless people. Many seismic countries, however, still don't have the infrastructure necessary to sustain such crucial networks, leaving their populations vulnerable to devastating earthquakes. Researchers in the U.S. and Germany have tested a global earthquake detection and alert system that makes use of a device many people already own, including in less developed countries—Android smartphones. According to their study, published today in the journal Science, the Android Earthquake Alerts (AEA) system's efficacy rivaled traditional seismic networks in its ability to detect seismic activity and deliver alerts. 'The global adoption of smartphone technology places sophisticated sensing and alerting capabilities in people's hands, in both the wealthy and less-wealthy portions of the planet,' the researchers, including Richard Allen from the University of California in Berkeley's Seismological Laboratory, wrote in the study. 'Although the accelerometers in these phones are less sensitive than the permanent instrumentation used in traditional seismic networks, they can still detect the ground motions and building response in hazardous earthquakes.' Shocking Video Shows Earth Tearing Open During Myanmar's Earthquake in March According to the study, 70% of the world's smartphones are Android phones, which by default come with the aforementioned sensing and alerting capabilities. From 2021 to 2024, the AEA system detected an average of 312 earthquakes per month across 98 countries. The earthquakes had a magnitude between 1.9 and 7.8, and the system alerted users of earthquakes at or over a magnitude of 4.5, averaging around 60 events and 18 million alerts per month. The AEA system also collected user feedback, revealing that 85% of users who received alerts experienced shaking, with 36% receiving the alert before, 28% during, and 23% after the shaking began. When an earthquake occurs, different types of seismic waves radiate out from the epicenter. P waves are fast and weak, while S waves are slower and more destructive. Just like traditional earthquake detection systems, Android smartphones can detect both P and S waves. When a detection occurs, the smartphone sends the data, including an approximate location, to Google servers, which then search for the appropriate seismic source. Once they identify the source with sufficient confidence, the earthquake is announced and alerts are sent out. So how can people receive an alert before they feel the shaking? The key is that electronic messages travel much faster than seismic waves, especially S waves. While people near the epicenter might not get any advanced warning, those living farther away will receive the alert before the seismic waves reach them—and even a few seconds could be just enough time to hide under a table or run outside. 'AEA demonstrates that globally distributed smartphones can be used to detect earthquakes and issue warnings at scale with an effectiveness comparable to established national systems,' the researchers wrote. 'The goal of the system is to deliver useful and timely alerts in as many earthquake-prone regions around the globe as possible. The system is supplementary to any existing national warning systems.' Despite the significant advancements scientists have made in identifying where earthquakes are most likely to occur, predicting when an earthquake will strike remains impossible, and seismic events continue to take lives all over the world. 'Large earthquakes remain the most important and challenging for all EEW systems, and the global implementation of AEA supports efforts to improve detection with rapid, large-scale data collection and feedback to algorithms,' the researchers explained. The study goes to show that problems don't always necessitate an expensive fix—sometimes the ingredients to a solution might already be in your pocket.
NZ Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Listen to The Country: GDT Auction with Fonterra's Richard Allen
Today on The Country radio show, host Jamie Mackay catches up with Fonterra's president of global ingredients, Richard Allen, to go over the last GDT auction of the season and to find out what the co-op's up to in Shanghai. On with the show: Christopher Luxon: We ask the Prime Minister about tomorrow's Budget, but more importantly, where's the money coming from to balance the books? We talk about Mystery Creek and whether dairy conversions will be the hot topic du jour at Fieldays?
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Yahoo
WATCH: Indiana man who killed girls on hike strikes defiant tone with police in new interrogation video
Recently released videos from 2022 show Richard Allen, the Indiana man convicted of killing two girls on a hiking trail in Delphi in 2017, denying he had any role in the crime when questioned by Indiana officials and his wife. An Indiana judge in December 2024 sentenced Allen to a maximum of 130 years behind bars for the murders of 13-year-old Abigail "Abby" Williams and 14-year-old Liberty "Libby" German, also known as the Delphi murders. A jury found Allen guilty of killing the two girls, who disappeared during their walk along the High Monon Trail Feb. 13, 2017. Investigators found them both brutally murdered the next day with their throats cut several times and sticks covering their bodies in a wooded area near the trail. Delphi Murders Trial: Jury Reaches Verdict For Suspect Richard Allen After Deliberating For 4 Days "It's sounding more like you're … I'm not going to be somebody's fall guy," Allen told investigators in an Oct. 13, 2022, interview video obtained by YouTuber Tom Webster and shared with Fox News Digital. "I mean, it's been so long, and I haven't thought about this much, and it's just, like, I don't want to be someone's fall guy. And we're going to try to make pieces of a puzzle fit somewhere they don't fit so we can close this thing … and please don't think I'm questioning you're integrity." Read On The Fox News App The interview started out jovially when Allen entered the interrogation room with investigators and laughed along with them. Allen was initially questioned in 2017 after the murders because he was on the High Monon Trail the day the girls went missing, but his name was scrubbed from the case due to a clerical error, journalist Áine Cain and Indiana-based attorney Kevin Greenlee, who co-host "The Murder Sheet" podcast, first reported. Delphi Murders Suspect's Confessions To Wife, Mother Sounded 'Calm,' Expert Says: 'Not What I Expected' Allen was arrested in 2022 after evidence led police to his home, where they found a gun matching an unspent bullet located at the crime scene and a blue jacket similar to the one a man was wearing in a video Libby took on the trail just before her disappearance. Allen's arrest took the Delphi community by surprise at the time because he was a longtime employee at a local CVS. "I guess I'm starting to feel more like I'm your main lead here, and I'm not gonna do that," Allen told officials in the interview. Delphi Murders Trial: 'Bridge Guy' Emerges As New Crime Scene Evidence Presented He also took issue with police asking for permission to search his phones and other personal belongings. Allen later says he and his wife watch "TV shows and stuff," and he doesn't "want to be associated with this thing more than anybody else does." "Am I an angel of a person? No," Allen said. "I mean, I'm like anybody else. … Maybe I don't want you looking at every website I visited." Throughout the interview, Allen can be seen playing with a water bottle, which he finishes about 40 to 50 minutes into the questioning. He said he understood that police want "closure" for the families of the victims. "We're here because we haven't found the guy that did this, and I'm not going to turn into that guy. … Like I said, we watch 'Dateline' every week. We watch everything, and … I mean, there's nothing that's going to tie me to it. I'm not worried about that, but to have people come and start searching my house and stuff. … I mean, my wife doesn't even know I'm talking to people," Allen said. "I don't want anyone to know I talked to you guys." Delphi Murders Suspect Confessed To Killing 2 Girls On Hiking Trail In Small Town, Prison Doc Says In a separate video obtained by Tom Webster and shared with Fox News Digital from Oct. 26, 2022, Allen denies the crime to his wife. "They're trying to tell me you actually believe I did it, and I just can't believe that," Allen told his wife in the video. His wife responded that he was trying to figure out how his gun was linked to a bullet at the crime scene. "I know you know I didn't do this," Allen said. "And I don't know what they're trying to do this, but I'm not going to say something that's not true, and I don't know how to explain something I don't understand. … There's no way a bullet from my gun ended up at a murder scene. I didn't murder anybody. I didn't help somebody murder anybody." Allen added that he did not see Abby and Libby on the High Monon Trail Feb. 13, 2017, and he did not have his gun with him on the trail that day. "They're not gonna get away with this," Allen says. He repeatedly told his wife she knows him, and he knows her, and he does not understand how investigators found a bullet from his gun at the crime scene. Sign Up To Get The True Crime Newsletter Allen then goes back-and-forth with an officer who tells Allen police have evidence showing the bullet found at the scene came from his gun. One key piece of evidence presented during Allen's trial last year was a video Libby recorded on her phone at some point before she and Abby were killed. Jurors watched 43 seconds of the video, which showed Libby and Abby walking with an unknown man wearing a hat and blue utility jacket in court Oct. 22. The man in the video became known over the last five years as "Bridge Guy." Libby captured the video at 2:13 p.m., less than 25 minutes after she and Abigail's family members dropped them off at the trail. "Guys, down the hill," the man told the girls in the video. Prosecutors argued that Allen is "Bridge Guy" after witnesses who testified against Allen said they saw him on the trail around the same time the girls disappeared, and authorities recovered a similar blue utility jacket from Allen's home in 2022. Delphi Murders Suspect Confessed To Killing 2 Girls On Hiking Trail In Small Town, Prison Doc Says Allen also admitted in one of dozens of jailhouse confessions that he did order the girls "down the hill." He repeatedly confessed to killing the girls, apparently saying he wanted to rape the girls but was spooked by a van nearby, at which point he decided to kill them. His attorneys said his declining mental stability led him to make false statements behind bars. More than five years after their deaths, investigators executed a search warrant at Allen's home in Delphi Oct. 13, 2022, and they recovered a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a .40-caliber S&W cartridge in a "wooden keepsake box" from a dresser between two closets in Allen's bedroom, according to authorities. The handgun recovered at Allen's home was consistent with a .40-caliber unspent bullet police found at the site of the murders in 2017, police said. Fox News' Patrick McGovern contributed to this article source: WATCH: Indiana man who killed girls on hike strikes defiant tone with police in new interrogation video
Fox News
26-04-2025
- Fox News
WATCH: Indiana man who killed girls on hike strikes defiant tone with police in new interrogation video
Recently released videos from 2022 show Richard Allen, the Indiana man convicted of killing two girls on a hiking trail in Delphi in 2017, denying he had any role in the crime when questioned by Indiana officials and his wife. An Indiana judge in December 2024 sentenced Allen to a maximum of 130 years behind bars for the murders of 13-year-old Abigail "Abby" Williams and 14-year-old Liberty "Libby" German, also known as the Delphi murders. A jury found Allen guilty of killing the two girls, who disappeared during their walk along the High Monon Trail Feb. 13, 2017. Investigators found them both brutally murdered the next day with their throats cut several times and sticks covering their bodies in a wooded area near the trail. "It's sounding more like you're … I'm not going to be somebody's fall guy," Allen told investigators in an Oct. 13, 2022, interview video obtained by YouTuber Tom Webster and shared with Fox News Digital. "I mean, it's been so long, and I haven't thought about this much, and it's just, like, I don't want to be someone's fall guy. And we're going to try to make pieces of a puzzle fit somewhere they don't fit so we can close this thing … and please don't think I'm questioning you're integrity." The interview started out jovially when Allen entered the interrogation room with investigators and laughed along with them. Allen was initially questioned in 2017 after the murders because he was on the High Monon Trail the day the girls went missing, but his name was scrubbed from the case due to a clerical error, journalist Áine Cain and Indiana-based attorney Kevin Greenlee, who co-host "The Murder Sheet" podcast, first reported. Allen was arrested in 2022 after evidence led police to his home, where they found a gun matching an unspent bullet located at the crime scene and a blue jacket similar to the one a man was wearing in a video Libby took on the trail just before her disappearance. Allen's arrest took the Delphi community by surprise at the time because he was a longtime employee at a local CVS. "I guess I'm starting to feel more like I'm your main lead here, and I'm not gonna do that," Allen told officials in the interview. He also took issue with police asking for permission to search his phones and other personal belongings. Allen later says he and his wife watch "TV shows and stuff," and he doesn't "want to be associated with this thing more than anybody else does." "Am I an angel of a person? No." "Am I an angel of a person? No," Allen said. "I mean, I'm like anybody else. … Maybe I don't want you looking at every website I visited." Throughout the interview, Allen can be seen playing with a water bottle, which he finishes about 40 to 50 minutes into the questioning. He said he understood that police want "closure" for the families of the victims. "We're here because we haven't found the guy that did this, and I'm not going to turn into that guy. … Like I said, we watch 'Dateline' every week. We watch everything, and … I mean, there's nothing that's going to tie me to it. I'm not worried about that, but to have people come and start searching my house and stuff. … I mean, my wife doesn't even know I'm talking to people," Allen said. "I don't want anyone to know I talked to you guys." In a separate video obtained by Tom Webster and shared with Fox News Digital from Oct. 26, 2022, Allen denies the crime to his wife. "They're trying to tell me you actually believe I did it, and I just can't believe that," Allen told his wife in the video. His wife responded that he was trying to figure out how his gun was linked to a bullet at the crime scene. "I know you know I didn't do this," Allen said. "And I don't know what they're trying to do this, but I'm not going to say something that's not true, and I don't know how to explain something I don't understand. … There's no way a bullet from my gun ended up at a murder scene. I didn't murder anybody. I didn't help somebody murder anybody." Allen added that he did not see Abby and Libby on the High Monon Trail Feb. 13, 2017, and he did not have his gun with him on the trail that day. "They're not gonna get away with this," Allen says. "They want you to think I done it." He repeatedly told his wife she knows him, and he knows her, and he does not understand how investigators found a bullet from his gun at the crime scene. Allen then goes back-and-forth with an officer who tells Allen police have evidence showing the bullet found at the scene came from his gun. One key piece of evidence presented during Allen's trial last year was a video Libby recorded on her phone at some point before she and Abby were killed. Jurors watched 43 seconds of the video, which showed Libby and Abby walking with an unknown man wearing a hat and blue utility jacket in court Oct. 22. The man in the video became known over the last five years as "Bridge Guy." Libby captured the video at 2:13 p.m., less than 25 minutes after she and Abigail's family members dropped them off at the trail. "Guys, down the hill," the man told the girls in the video. Prosecutors argued that Allen is "Bridge Guy" after witnesses who testified against Allen said they saw him on the trail around the same time the girls disappeared, and authorities recovered a similar blue utility jacket from Allen's home in 2022. Allen also admitted in one of dozens of jailhouse confessions that he did order the girls "down the hill." He repeatedly confessed to killing the girls, apparently saying he wanted to rape the girls but was spooked by a van nearby, at which point he decided to kill them. His attorneys said his declining mental stability led him to make false statements behind bars. More than five years after their deaths, investigators executed a search warrant at Allen's home in Delphi Oct. 13, 2022, and they recovered a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a .40-caliber S&W cartridge in a "wooden keepsake box" from a dresser between two closets in Allen's bedroom, according to authorities. The handgun recovered at Allen's home was consistent with a .40-caliber unspent bullet police found at the site of the murders in 2017, police said.
