katy utis has the story. >> reporter: designed in california, and downloaded across the world, developers of the my shake app await data from the earthquakes. >> we're jittery, too. >> lewis schreier is working with uc berkeley's seismological lab to turn your mobile phone >> the accelerometer in the phone been record the ground shaking, send that data to our system and we can use that data to understand the physics of the process underneath us, how the buildings around us respond to these quakes and we have more data than we have from the tradition counsel seismic networks. >> i might have 1,000 sensors. here in california alone, there may be 16 million smartphones. >> data sent to the lab will be compared to official usgs seismic readings. once it's been thoroughly tested and deeped accurate it could develop into an early warning system especially morn pore places like nepal. >> here an alert can save lives. so it becomes vital for somebody in a country for which there is no early warning system. >> reporter: the my shake app is free to download for android users. not vet yet available