Cell Phone Radiation Detectors Proposed to Protect Against Nukes

crosshatch brings us news out of Purdue University, where researchers are developing a radiation detection system that would rely on sensors within cell phones to locate and track potentially hazardous material. From the Purdue news service: "Such a system could blanket the nation with millions of cell phones equipped with radiation sensors able to detect even light residues of radioactive material. Because cell phones already contain global positioning locators, the network of phones would serve as a tracking system, said physics professor Ephraim Fischbach. 'The sensors don't really perform the detection task individually,' Fischbach said. 'The collective action of the sensors, combined with the software analysis, detects the source. Say a car is transporting radioactive material for a bomb, and that car is driving down Meridian Street in Indianapolis or Fifth Avenue in New York. As the car passes people, their cell phones individually would send signals to a command center, allowing authorities to track the source.'"

Comments

Easy to Knock A Good Thing

[rally2xs]

It is amazing, almost as if it was illegal to not oppose every new idea. Folks, this is a great step toward self-defense against the absolute worst sort of terrorism. Would it cost something? Sure. Is it worth paying for? Damned straight. We have to start thinking like we're a society under attack, because we are. Just because the bastards haven't been able to mount a serious threat within the US borders since 9/11 doesn't mean they wouldn't like to. Its probably just a matter of time until these yahoos do get their hands on a nuke. This would be just the thing to stop them in their tracks. Casting a ubiquitous network of cell phones throughout the land that can detect nuclear material on the move would be an extremely good thing. If it can be done for maybe $25 - $50 per cell, so much the better. Try imagining the alternative, such as maybe your own neigborhood looking like the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki all the way out to the horizon. If not your own neigborhood, how about your friend's neighborhood, or your relatives neigborhood? Is that OK? I say it is not. I'm sitting in Kuwait on the way out of Iraq after working a science and tech advisor job to the US military in counter-IED work. Take my word, the enemy is smart, capable, and desireous of wiping us off the face of the earth if they can. They take the most innocuous materials and figure out ways to kill you with it. If they get their hands on a nuke, and we don't have proper countermeasures, a whale of a lot of Americans will die, and if not you, at least several people you know and some you care about. Go ahead and whine about a few bucks extra for an unneeded device such as a cell phone. Cell phones are a luxury. Can't afford an extra $25 - $50 to keep America safe? Do without a cell then. I'm 60 years old and lived without cell phones for 50 years so I know it can be done. This only takes money from the monied, and is no burden on the poor. You couldn't want a better financing model.

your phone already tracks you

[SethJohnson]

so my cellphone DOES have a direct line of contact with a... government agency that DOES... collect my information.. time of day... places I've been...

There, I fixed your typos.

Seth