Xiaomi smartphone and set-top box owners in China will soon have access to potentially life-saving early earthquake warnings right on their devices. At its annual Mi Developer conference in Bejing, the Chinese electronics company said its MIUI 11-based smartphones and Mi TV set-top boxes now include an early earthquake warning feature. Xiaomi claims the system is able to deliver warnings “seconds to tens of seconds” before an earthquake arrives. The company has rolled out the feature in China’s Sichuan province first, which is one of the country’s more earthquake-prone regions, and plans to make it available to all Chinese users in the future.
The feature, which was first trialed in September this year, has been developed in partnership with Institute of Care-life, a Chengdu-based organization focusing on natural disaster warning. Xiaomi said it has activated the feature for the earthquake-prone Sichuan Province and plans to expand it elsewhere in the nation soon.
Wang Tun, head of the institute, said this function, unlike those available through apps in some countries, works more efficiently and does not rely on a working internet connection.
According to TechCrunch, Xiaomi told Mi Developer conference attendees the feature is the first of its kind globally. However, as with most new technologies, there are prior examples. Following the deadly T?hoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011, Apple added native earthquake alerts to iPhones in Japan. In the US, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) tested its Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system last year, which works on both iOS and Android devices. Xiaomi did note its take on emergency alerts is able to function without a working internet connection, and said that it’s willing to share the tech with other companies.
