A country’s security can now be handed over to the most commonly used communication-gadget — cell phones! Hats off to the Purdue University engineers for developing a system, capable of using a U.S. cell phone-network for detecting dirty bombs and also nuclear weapons. And, with this new technology, security can eventually be effective with such radiation sensors-equipped millions of cell phones continuously detecting not just bombs and weapons, but also light residues of radioactive material.
But, if the thought of the extra circuitry’s changing your cell phones’ thickness or weight is worrying you, here is the relieving news for you – it would not change the factors much, along with their prices. And, if the environmentalists and the health fraternity are up with arms against it’s ‘radiation hazards’, hold on! — To ignore some radioactive sources, the radiation-tracking cell phones could be customized.
Funded by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) through the Joint Transportation Research Program at Purdue, the small, yet, effective security software for the system was developed by Andrew Longman — a consulting instrumentation scientist – and the Purdue researchers integrated it with radiation detectors and cell phones. AT&T provided the cellular data air time.
Via: zdnet
