Sunday, September 25, 2011

#Radiation in Japan: DoCoMo to Introduce Smartphone with Radiation Detection Jacket

Japan's DoCoMo is set to introduce a smartphone jacket with radiation detection sensor in the "CEATEC Japan 2011", an annual high-tech trade show in Japan, at Makuhari Messe in Chiba which will start on October 4, according to Sankei Biz (9/26/2011).

(Just when the government has launched a sort of smear campaign on small, personal survey meters as "inaccurate"...)

Apple's iPhone and iPod already have an attachment and an application that detects radiation.

According to the Sankei Biz article, DoCoMo's radiation sensor jacket, that will be attached to the back of a smartphone, will allow not only the radiation detection but also data collection over time and sharing, and mapping.

DoCoMo's press release says it will detect gamma radiation. It can detect radiation from 0.01 microsievert/hour to 100 millisieverts/hour, according to Asahi Shinbun. No information about the pricing.

In the photo, the plastic case next to the phone contains radium pellets.

10 comments:

steve the jew said...

"but also data collection over time and sharing, and mapping."

this is the most important aspect of the device.

Anonymous said...

There's also an app that uses the smartphone's
camera to detect radiation.
Not as accurate and sensitive as a geiger
counter, but cheap, and may save you from running into a high radiation zone.
The guy that wrote it tested several
smartphones with a professional radiation
source.
Interestig video.

http://rdklein.de/html/radioactivity.html

Atomfritz said...

To me this "device" looks like a camera lens cap.

The "readings" are at best approximations. Even worse, as technical changes are usually without subject of note, the camera sensors can change any time so you cannot be sure that there is no dangerous level of radiation only because your pda camera doesn't get random pixels.

In May Tepco published several photos that show much radiation distortion.
This caused some discussion in the net and after that Tepco either did either some radiation shielding to their cameras, or just switched to another camera model that is less sensitive to radiation.

For an example of these pictures, just see this image: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/110311/images/110519_3_4.jpg

So please beware:
Just because your camera doesn't count many picture distortions you can NOT assume that there is no dangerous radiation level.

Anonymous said...

If you need to monitor your radiation levels hour to hour, then maybe it is time to move elsewhere. ??

Anonymous said...

A KFM is a homemade fallout meter designed during the cold war by scientist at ORNL. It can detect radiation levels down to 300 micro sieverts and can be built by a 12 year old child with common household items (makes a great science fair project). It wouldn't be very helpful for low levels like the 10.5 µSv train seat in the recent post but it could come in handy in the future nuclear mishaps that are sure to happen. I'm sure people would have paid for these free plans the day after. The Japanese government could have printed the plans in every major newspaper in Japan the day after the contamination release if they were really worried about the people in the fallout zone. Japanese officials subscribe to the "hear no evil, see no evil and you won't be able to speak about the evil" disaster plan. The US isn't any better you can be sure they won't be rushing to the presses the day after their next accident. If you don't have a better radiation detection device I'd make a hard copy and file it away with the house hold items necessary to make one.

"The plans were originally released in Oak Ridge National Laboratory publication ORNL-5040, The KFM, A Homemade Yet Accurate and Dependable Fallout Meter and have been formatted in a newsprint ready layout so that they may be quickly printed with accurate dimensions in local newspapers".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearny_Fallout_Meter

KFM Plans

http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/pdf/kfm_inst.pdf

KFM plans for people without Adobe

http://www.ki4u.com/free_book/s60p792.htm

Anonymous said...

Dang this is becoming like the game Fallout 3. LOL

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

If you are after a really cheap radiation detector, try this:
http://www.b-kainka.de/bastel131.html#count
(Link in german)

http://bit.ly/oIGre5
(Translated to english)

It uses only 5 cheap electronic components, that
you can get nearly everywhere, is easy to build, and runs on every PC's sound input.
Without additional power supply.

If you want a portable device, try this:
http://bit.ly/oCuL06

Anonymous said...

Do not trust any digital "detection" apps especially regarding radiation detection. Trust only old analog Geiger devices. Hollywood "methods" have gotten into the "fallout disaster business" to herd people off of their rural land into population centers (cities) for concentrated commercial control and land grabs. Take and trust your own readings as digital can be manipulated by the system.

Anonymous said...

new map produced by MEXT. Gunma looks worse than expected, quite a few spots with >100kBq/m^2

http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/ja/1910/2011/09/1910_092714.pdf

Anonymous said...

Nice one.keep it up.thanks for sharing.

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