Since the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, governments have been working to put better tsunami-warning systems into place. While today's warning systems are complex and expensive to install and maintain, tomorrow's systems may be simple and inexpensive. Austrian product engineering firm ninsight is prototyping a peer-to-peer application that runs on PCs.

ninsight's Tsunami Harddisk Detector monitors the vibration of the PC's disk drive and compares it to the vibrations of other PCs that have the software installed. Because seismic shocks travel about 25 times faster than water waves, an earthquake can shake your PC's disk drive long before the tsunami reaches shore. A small number of networked computers is enough for the application to locate the epicenter of a seismic shock, measure its intensity and estimate the risk of a tsunami.

The Tsunami HDD was distributed free of charge earlier this year and won a prize at the Prix Ars Electronica. The developer conducted a massive public beta test in September and is now working on a new version of the software, based on the results of the test.