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Cell Phones As a Dirty Bomb Detection Network
First time accepted submitter iinventstuff writes "The Idaho National Laboratory has built a dirty bomb detection network out of cell phones. Camera phones operate by detecting photons and storing them as a picture. The INL discovered that high energy photons from radiological sources distort the image in ways detectable through image processing. KSL TV reports that the INL's mobile app detects radiation sources and then reports positive 'hits' to a central server. Terrorists deploying a dirty bomb will inevitably pass by people carrying cell phones. By crowdsourcing cell phones, the INL has created a potentially very large, inexpensive, and randomly mobile radiation detection grid."
now with improved citizen tracking
"Yep, that guy! Over there! Jump him, he's a terrorist!"
"Who me? I just got my thyroid irradiated, give me a break."
Talk about adding insult to injury.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Back in January 2008, slashdot user mike449 mentioned using the camera to do this: http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=429956&cid=22180470
So if this were both widely deployed and effective it would just force these hypothetical dirty bomb enthusiasts to line the bomb container with lead. Lead which would become toxic shrapnel on detonation. The potential for many false positives has already been mentioned, but this system could be easily defeated by a thin lead lining. Lead lining has the further benefit of shielding a non-suicidal bomber from his own radiation.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Too late: http://gammapix.com/corporate/about "The patent-protected GammaPix (TM) technology (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,391,028 and 7,737,410 plus foreign filings) has been under development since 2002 with over $2.5 million in government support." http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=7391028 and patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=7737410 were from applications filed on Feb. 28, 2005.
No, no, it was a different DC hero, and much more recent. And the technology in question was sonar---"like a submarine!"---but then that doesn't matter much. Of course its use was justified, just once, by the general terrorization of the people of Gotham, and I'm sure everyone involved would take comfort by the fact that a benevolent yet private entity could effortlessly hack into all of their cell phones at the same time. For the greater good.
Then again, perhaps all those people voluntarily installed the "Help Batman by spying on yourself" app.
..a highly ingenious way to warn us about something that has close to a zero chance of happening. I guess it's like the rest of Homeland Security's efforts, just without the ingenious part.
Not to mention, a highly ingenious way to keep the hype of the 'danger' of dirty bombs fresh in our minds. THANK YOU, DHS. It's been proven a few times that dirty bombs are no real threat since they're just radioactive-packed conventional explosives, but the media kept hyping them as the 'Next And Future Most Dangerous Evil Terrorrorrorrorrorrist Weapon of Mass Destruction', even though the cleanup of the aftermath of a 'dirty bomb' has been mathematically proven to be trivial compared to cleaning up after a nuke.
Guess that's why the media gets such big bucks. They hype dirty bombs some more and citizens will demand this happen to 'save us all'.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
I was assuming the parent poster wasn't so much a terrorist as a mischievous prankster --- if your level of evil mastermind planning is to tag mostly harmless minor radioactive sources around the city (causing distress and embarrassment to the officials running the phone tracking scheme, but not exactly the mass terror of an actual bomb), then you might well be deterred by jail time. An actual terrorist unafraid of getting caught would just head to the target, phones be damned, and set off a bomb before phone data analysts had time to recognize and neutralize the threat. Fortunately, actual terrorists are *extremely rare,* and not worth the massive efforts/resources expended to prevent hypothetical movie-plot threats.
From everything I've read about dirty bombs, their radiological damage is negligible...it's all about creating panic.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
As someone who designs camera phones, we're well aware of this phenomenon but we're not going to spend precious power telling the user there might be a radiological source nearby. Chances are it'll be a hospital.
This will force Al-Qaeda to clean up their act.
When a Kosmos satellite with some plutonium aboard smeared itself over a few hundred miles of Canada the cleanup operation went more smoothly than anyone ever expected. It turns out that detection from the air works well, even with 1970s technology.