SeismoGuard: A Distributed IoT Framework for Early Earthquake Warning System

SeismoGuard is a low-cost, decentralized Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) designed to provide rapid alerts in high-risk urban areas. Unlike traditional centralized systems that suffer from high latency and infrastructure costs, SeismoGuard utilizes Edge-AI on an ESP32 microcontroller to process seismic data locally. By performing inference directly at the sensor level, the system achieves an ultra-low detection latency of less than 100 milliseconds, saving critical seconds during a seismic event. To ensure high precision, the system employs a dual-layer detection strategy: a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network identifies complex seismic patterns, while a cross-correlation filter performs template matching to confirm P-waves. This hybrid approach effectively filters out urban environmental noise—such as traffic and machinery—that typically causes false alarms in low-cost MEMS sensors. Given that research by Steckler et al. (2016) identifies a locked megathrust fault beneath Bangladesh capable of a magnitude 8.2+ earthquake, SeismoGuard offers a scalable and life-saving solution for localized disaster mitigation.