Smartphones to monitor drilling in Siberian coal mines?

Young Kemerovo student innovators in Siberia have developed a technology to monitor boring machines in coal mines using the iPhones and other smartphones.

Young student innovators in Siberia?s coal-rich Kemerovo region have developed a technology to monitor boring machines in coal mines using the iPhones and other smartphones, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports, citing a source in the Kemerovo regional administration. Yevgeny Mametyev and Konstantin Ponomarev, the developers, are said to have presented to an audience at their Kuzbass State Technical University (KuzSTU) their actual operational system consisting of miniature gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetic detectors, an electronic compass and other components to enable a smartphone to be highly sensitive to any movement and change of its spatial arrangement. As soon as the sensors change their position, a computer displays different data, thus making it possible to do uninterruptible monitoring of boring machines? slave components. A series of testing of the new system is slated for this coming summer on an actual horizontal drilling machine. Smart Mechanics, a local company doing diagnostics of engineering equipment for the Kemerovo region?s coal mines, is reported to have ?expressed interest in the new project...