Xiaomi first integrated an earthquake alert on its custom MIUI ROM for its phones and smart TVs in 2010. The feature was made possible by a collaboration with Chengdu High-tech Disaster Mitigation Institute. The tech giant recently released data showing that it had successfully warned about 35 earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 and above with a total of 12.64 million warning messages sent since it was released in November 2019.
In its usual nature of pioneering innovations, Xiaomi may be on its way to debut yet another disaster early warning system. The company has teased a feature that allows its mobile phones to not only receive earthquake warning information but also monitor earthquakes. The feature would involve integrating its smartphones with a couple of sensors that would monitor the earth’s seismic activities in real-time. 
This technology not only saves the cost of earthquake monitoring, but also greatly increases the number of monitoring, making the national earthquake monitoring and early warning network more complete.
The new feature would be launched on all Xiaomi phones as time goes on. However, Mi phone users running the MIUI 12.5 development version can go to Mobile Phone Manager-Earthquake Early Warning to apply to join the earthquake monitoring volunteers.
The Chinese tech giant explained further that when the sensor in the mobile phone detects the vibration, it will judge whether it is earthquake information through edge computing. If it is true, it will send the information to the early warning center, and the center will use the information from multiple mobile phones and the earthquake data AI to calculate and decide whether an earthquake really occurred.
If it is determined that there is an earthquake, the earthquake’s magnitude, epicenter location and time will be quickly calculated, and then warning messages will be issued to the affected people in the surrounding area.
When every Xiaomi mobile phone becomes an earthquake monitor, the number of earthquake monitors can be greatly increased. In that way, places without traditional earthquake monitors can receive early warning information, and the national earthquake monitoring and early warning network will cover a wider range.
The feature will not in any way jeopardize the privacy of participants as the company indicated that in the entire process, it will use “differential privacy” to anonymously handle all user data and thus, ensure user privacy.
We don’t expect this feature to launch on Xiaomi smartphones that are sold outside China.
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