Coming Soon: Phones With Radioactive Sensors !

[Honest 836]

Coming soon: Phones with Radioactive Sensors

Your phone will soon be able to sniff out nuclear weapons and dirty bombs

That's correct. Phones of the near future might double-up as bomb sniffers and radioactive material detectors. This is not because existing technology is not "advanced" enough to detect radioactive stuff out on the loose. Rather, cellphones being mass produced devices will serve as an excellent platform to bring these sensors to the masses -- where no present-day sensors can go.

Previous generation sensors installed at sensitive locations had one major problem: They were sensitive to any kind of radiation. For example, a sensor was not able to detect the difference between harmless radiation from Bananas (yes, bananas) and the genuinely scary stuff that comes off of Uranuim and Plutonium. Sensors triggering false alarms were common -- for example, a patient undergoing chemotherapy would have been identified as a "potential threat". With close to 350,000 radiation therapy patients just in Europe, false alarms had become commonplace.

As technology improved, so did the sensors.

Enter spectroscopic sensors. The newest kid on the block, it can determine if radiation is really harmful, thus reducing the chances of false alarms. However, there is a catch. The equipment used to detect are expensive and they can be installed only at entry and exit points of sensitve locations, which make their use restricted to commercial buildings; making them difficult to act as an effective anti-terrorism tool. China had installed many such sensors during the Beijing Olympics.

So, how will your cell phone help detect radioactive material?

Researchers at Purdue University have decided to "reinvent the wheel" and are on the lookout for cheap sensors that can be fitted inside cell phones. The project is known as "Distributed Nuclear Detection by Ubiquitous Cell Phone" and is designed to help detect "dirty" bombs and nuclear weapons by triangulating the source of the radiation. More the number of cellphones, the better the accuracy of detection. The best part is that locations where terrorists are likely to strike are cities, which also happen to have the greatest concentration of cell phones. As for the cost, it is estimated that the sensors would add less than $100 to the cost of the phone. The project is still in its infancy and for widespread deployment, an approval from the US congress would be required. The first operational system is being designed by Simon Labov, a researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in northern California and is expected to be ready within 18 months.

Courtesy : Techtree

[rajat8676 0]

Yes, with bombs going off so frequently, this technology is the need of the hour.

[Ramchi 0]

These are counter productive with respect to national safety. Some foreigner can sniff in to our country (vice-versa) and expose potential Nuclear Bombs installed in our country to our enemies (I mean, everyone in the world I presume considering the present situation). First of all, countries like US will definitely oppose such instruments.