Weekly Innovation: A Radiation Detector In Your Smartphone
by ALAN YU
January 23, 201411:05 AM
Scientists tested their radiation detection app on four
smartphones, concluding that it works well enough to be a useful warning system
for first responders.
Idaho National Laboratory
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A smartphone camera can make you a walking gamma ray
detector. Without needing any extra hardware, you could get a warning on your
phone when you're approaching potentially harmful levels of gamma radiation.
Scientists at Idaho National Laboratory created an Android
app (the system is called CellRAD) for turning smartphone cameras into
radiation detectors, and tested it with four smartphone models (Samsung Nexus
S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Samsung SIII and LG Nexus 4).
They concluded that the phones have the processing power to
detect gamma radiation with their built-in cameras and to measure levels on the
phone. With the help of a program on a remote server, the app captures and
measures an average energy level, then uses a model to figure out what types of
radioactive material could be emitting the radiation. Basically, once your
phone has been calibrated with the app, you'll have a radiation detector in
your pocket.
"Up until fairly recently, people weren't carrying
around cameras with computers attached to them pretty much all the time,"
says Joshua Cogliati, a research scientist and co-author of the recent paper
announcing their findings. "That's why it's happening now."
The app was funded by a grant from the Department of
Defense's Rapid Reaction Technology Office and could be useful for
firefighters, police officers and other first responders, according to its
creator.
The principle behind this isn't new — scientists know that
charge-coupled devices (or CCDs used in cameras) can detect X-rays. But now our
phones have the computing power to figure out what the source of radiation is,
and eliminate false positives that can happen just because your phone is warm.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says members of the
public shouldn't be exposed to more than 0.1 rem of radiation a year; Cogliati
says the app will be able to quickly pick up a source before a person receives
a dose of that amount, and it's not so sensitive that it'll start beeping at
bananas. Of course it won't be as sensitive as a regular detector, but it's
definitely enough to detect radiation before it reaches deadly levels and it's
useful enough as a warning system, he says.
For example, say you know there's a large radioactive source
somewhere in New York City.
"New York has people who do have radiation detectors,
but they're not able to go quite everywhere," Cogliati says. "All of
a sudden you might be able to push [radiation detectors] to all the police
officers who have cell phones and suddenly you've just increased your
coverage."
The scientists are considering a commercial partnership to
develop the app for the general public. In the meantime, there are other apps
that can give you an estimate of the gamma radiation around you.
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