Radiation Detecting Android Phone Coming To Japan 133
itwbennett writes "Softbank, Japan's third largest carrier, has teamed up with Sharp to create a radiation detector chip for the latest model in the company's popular, bare-bones Pantone line of smartphones. The chip 'can detect gamma radiation in the air at doses of between 0.05 and 9.99 microsieverts per hour,' according to an IDG News Service report. 'The phone then uses its GPS to place readings on a map. Due to go on sale in July, it runs Android 4.0 and features standard functionality for Japanese handsets, including mobile TV, touch payments and infrared transmission.'"
Re:Geiger (Score:4, Informative)
Why don't they call a 'radiation detector' by its name? It's a Geiger Counter. Way to make a name for something fall out of common usage...
Unless it contains a Geiger–Müller tube, it isn't much of a Geiger counter. Since this phone apparently contains a 'chip'(quite possibly just a CCD of some sort packaged so that most of the pxel hits can be assumed to be from high energy radiation, possibly something cleverer/more specialized), and since cramming a gas tube and high-voltage driver circuits into a cellphone is a pain, I'm guessing that there is nothing 'Geiger' about this counter...
Re:Geiger (Score:4, Informative)
Why don't they call a 'radiation detector' by its name? It's a Geiger Counter. Way to make a name for something fall out of common usage...
There is not much description in the article, but I don't think it is a Geiger tube, as that requires high voltages and is fairly bulky. This is probably some sort of silicon detector [fnal.gov].
Re:That's seems awfully sensitive to me (Score:4, Informative)
Or, you know, none. I counter your "Experts" with the UN "Experts": http://www.nature.com/news/fukushima-s-doses-tallied-1.10686 [nature.com]
Outside of those directly affected (i.e. evacuated from the area or traumatized by the tsunami), worrying about radiation will carry a higher cancer risk due to stress than the actual radiation.