The Earthquake Network research project (http://www.earthquakenetwork.it) aims at developing a smartphone-based crowsourced early warning system able to detect earthquakes in real time and to alert the population. The app Earthquake Network allows you to receive the real time notifications of the earthquakes detected by the network, to manually report an earthquake you felt and to chat with other people during an earthquake emergency. For the scientific details about the project please refer to the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America journal at http://goo.gl/lFBLYm
When an earthquake is detected in real time near your location, the app can send an automatic e-mail to a list of contacts with your precise position in space. This can be useful for rescuing without the need of user interaction with the app. You can also send a request of help or you can say that you are fine with just one click.
The app also shows information on the earthquakes detected by the national and international seismic networks.

Smartphones (or tablets) are able to detect earthquakes thanks to the accelerometer on-board each smartphone. When an earthquake is detected, users with the application installed are immediatly notified. As the waves of the earthquake travel at a given speed (from 5 to 10 km/s), it is possible to notify the population not yet reached by the damaging waves of the earthquake.

Note that the project is currently at the experimental stage. Detection of earthquakes is influenced by the number of active devices in the area hit by the earthquakes, by the their spatial distribution and by the sensitivity of the accelerometers. Nonetheless, the goal of the warning system is to detect strong earthquakes that has the potential to harm or damage people and things.

Information on earthquakes detected by the national and international seismic networks are usually published with a delay ranging from few minutes to many hours, depending on the network. For more information please visit the web pages of the networks included in the application and listed below.

USGS (U.S. Geological Survey)
http://www.usgs.gov

EMSC (European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre)
http://www.emsc-csem.org

GeoNet (Earthquake Commission and GNS Science)
http://www.geonet.org.nz

CSN (Centro Sismologico Nacional)
http://www.sismologia.cl

INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia)
http://www.ingv.it

IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional)
http://www.ign.es

CSI (China Seismic Information)
http://www.csi.ac.cn

JMA (Japanese Meteorological Agency)
http://www.jma.go.jp

Ineter (Instituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales)
http://www.ineter.gob.ni

SSN (Servicio Sismológico Nacional)
http://www.ssn.unam.mx

SGC (Servicio Geológico Colombiano)
http://www2.sgc.gov.co

RSN (Red Sismológica Nacional)
http://www.rsn.ucr.ac.cr

Funvisis (Fundación Venezolana de Investigaciones Sismológicas)
http://www.funvisis.gob.ve

INPRES (Instituto Nacional de Prevención Sísmica)
http://www.inpres.gov.ar/

IGEPN (Instituto Geofísico Escuela Politécnica Nacional)
http://www.igepn.edu.ec