Appliance for Monitoring Activity Within a Dwelling

A network of motion sensors employs sensitive accelerometers to issue time-domain measurements of building movement from multiple locations within and between buildings and other structures. The time-domain measurements from the various motion sensors are synchronized and converted into frequency-domain measurements of building movement. Individual motion sensors can be equipped with the requisite processor and memory to synchronize and covert the time-domain measurements. The motions sensors can classify detected events into various event types, such as earthquakes, wind events, or bipedal locomotion. The sensors can also communicate with one another or other resources to calculate event probabilities. A motion sensor may, for example, receive an earthquake-verification signal responsive to an earthquake-verification request. The network of motion sensors can calculate local soil stiffness and financial loss estimations responsive to their individual or collective frequency-domain measurements.