Drone network provides early warnings for natural disasters

Drones might soon deliver a heads-up when natural disasters are about to strike. Researchers have developed a communication system that uses a drone network to provide early warnings for disasters. The challenge wasn't so much the drone-to-drone comm...

GM will offer free OnStar crisis support during Hurricane Dorian

As Hurricane Dorian begins crawling towards Florida's coast, automakers are doing their part to help. GM announced today that they will offer free OnStar Crisis Assist services to all owners of properly equipped Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac veh...

New 7.4 Earthquake hits Nepal


Reports hit the wire that Nepal has been hit by another big earthquake today. The epicenter of the 7.3 earthquake is near Kodari and close to Mount Everest according to USGS. The time of the quake...

Mississippi Tornado likely to cut through Omaha to New Orleans on the weekend


It seems that America’s tornado drought is not going to last for longer and if we're getting any luckier then this might just end as early as this weekend. The potent weather system is slowly moving...

Sandia Labs’ MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes (video)

Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes video

We've seen some large-scale simulations, including some that couldn't get larger. Simulated cellular networks are still a rare breed, however, which makes Sandia National Laboratories' MegaDroid project all the more important. The project's cluster of off-the-shelf PCs emulates a town of 300,000 Android phones down to their cellular and GPS behavior, all with the aim of tracing the wider effects of natural disasters, hacking attempts and even simple software bugs. Researchers imagine the eventually public tool set being useful not just for app developers, but for the military and mesh network developers -- the kind who'd need to know how their on-the-field networks are running even when local authorities try to shut them down. MegaDroid is still very much an in-progress effort, although Sandia Labs isn't limiting its scope to Android and can see its work as relevant to iOS or any other platform where a ripple in the network can lead to a tidal wave of problems.

Continue reading Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes (video)

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Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan considers using social networks in disaster situations

Japan considers using social networks in disaster situationsEmergency services are embracing technology as new ways to investigate, send alerts and receive reports of crises. And now, the Japanese are looking at social networks to support communication in disaster scenarios, especially when traditional services fail. The local Fire and Disaster Management Agency put together a panel discussion on just that topic, with representatives attending from the likes of Twitter, Yahoo, Mixi and NHN Japan, as well as various government and emergency bodies. The talk was motivated, in part, by the March tsunami, when the internet was the sole means of information for some, and with initiatives like Google's Person Finder playing a role in the aftermath. Any formal implementation of the ideas discussed is probably a long way off, and this is the first of three planned meets to hash it out. In the meantime, however, Twitter's Japanese blog posted some suggestions on how their network could be used in emergencies -- we just hope they won't be needed anytime soon.

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Japan considers using social networks in disaster situations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePCWorld, Twitter blog (Japanese)  | Email this | Comments