Scientists Developing Cell Phone Nuclear Radiation Detectors

Well, Jack Bauer of 24 would like us to believe nuclear terror is just around the corner, and with this system, we might just be able to prove - or disprove - it.

Scientists at Purdue University are working on a system which would use a network of cell phones to detect and locate nuclear radiation from "dirty bombs" and other such terrorist devices. You could think of it as similar to a distributed computing effort, with a blanketing network of cell phones and software analysis pinpointing the location of the radiation.

The detection and reporting of such radioactive material would be transparent to the user, according to a Purdue University press release.

According to Ephraim Fischbach, a physics professor involved in the effort,

"The sensors don't really perform the detection task individually. The collective action of the sensors, combined with the software analysis, detects the source. The system would transmit signals to a data center, and the data center would transmit information to authorities without alerting the person carrying the phone. 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."

If all cell phones contained such sensors, you could see that the massive network of cell phones could then be used to triangulate in on the source.

Purdue University has been working with funding by Indiana Department of Transportation on this project.

In terms of pinpointing location, it would be better if all cell phones had true GPS units in them, although the Google "My Location"-style of pseudo-GPS for those phones without GPS would work in a pinch.

I can already see a possible issue with this: privacy. Obviously the statement will be made that they'll be no way to track back to a particular cell phone user, but I can see privacy advocates arguing about it - as well as shows like C.S.I. - getting around such limitations (you know how they can enlarge a retinal reflection 1,000,000 times without pixelation, right? )

At any rate, this isn't close to commercialization and deployment. Purdue Research Foundation owns the patents associated with this tech, BTW.