iPhone and Other Smartphones to Measure Radiation

November 02, 2011 | 

Svetlana Gladkova

Russian scientists from Intersoft Eurasia have reported plans to manufacture a device that will enable iOS, Android and Windows 7 mobile devices to measure radiation and inform the user of normal or elevated levels.

Basically the dosimeter is nothing but a sensor based on graphene, the material awarded with Nobel prize in 2010. It will be manufactured as a standalone device that can be connected to a smartphone with a dedicated application installed that enables use of such a device.

The price of the dosimeter will be in the range from $30 to $50 in retail but of course if it could be integrated in the device body by manufacturers, the price could drop (down to $10 as the inventor claims) and every user could have the functionality by default. The company has already negotiated the idea of sensor integration with manufacturers such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Fujitsu but the results have not been disclosed yet.

The project will supposedly be funded by Skolkovo foundation, a widely discussed and heavily supported by the government Russian foundation for innovators that is part of the idea of building a dedicated research and development center near Moscow that will be very similar to the Silicon Valley in the US.

The device will offer quite a number of features via the apps installed on the smartphones. In addition to providing instant data regarding radiation, the apps can also deliver information on accumulated radiation that has influenced the smartphone owner during a day, a week, a month or a year. What’s more, it can even recommend some actions to the smartphone owner based on the exposure dose, including how to properly leave the dangerous area.

The applications will also automatically send the data received to some central storage for processing in order to generate global data on radiation environment. This data will eventually be delivered back to the device owners so that they could understand the environment in the areas where they live or travel.

Overall I think it could be a useful idea for those who would want to check safety of food and make sure they live and spend their time in safe areas only. And given that you cannot always fully trust your environment and third parties that are supposed to validate safety, this invention may be a good idea to ensure your own personal safety – just in case. Or maybe I just sound paranoid and watched too many Fukushima related news stories on TV. But that’s just a matter of personal approach to life and of course no one will make you use such a device/app anyway.

But when it comes to adoption, there is always a question of feasibility. While I personally would want to use such an application, I can hardly imagine myself actually buying a standalone gadget on purpose – let alone carry it in my purse to check fish in a supermarket. So for me the only way to adoption is having Apple actually integrating it in some future models of iPhone. But does that mean that many users will really want to measure radiation bad enough for the manufacturers to want to integrate the sensor in their gadgets? Even $10 will push any gadget’s price a little higher so it should be appealing enough for users to want to pay this extra. Though I guess there are enough countries (and I am not surprised to see that the company’s website is only available in English and Japanese in addition to the native Russian) where this extra feature for a smartphone will have enough user demand.

Via (in Russian)

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• iPhone and Other Smartphones to Measure Radiation