Cell Phones to Thwart Terrorists
Researchers at Purdue University of West Lafayette are working with the state of Indiana to develop a system that would use a network of cell phones to detect and track radiation to help prevent terrorist attacks with radiological “dirty bombs” and nuclear weapons, reports the Purdue news service.
Such a system could blanket the nation with millions of cell phones equipped with radiation sensors able to detect even light residues of radioactive material. Because cell phones already contain GPS locators, the network of phones would serve as a tracking system, said physics professor Ephraim Fischbach.
“It’s the ubiquitous nature of cell phones and other portable electronic devices that give this system its power,” Fischbach said. “It’s meant to be small, cheap and eventually built into laptops, personal digital assistants, and cell phones.”
The system was developed by consulting scientist Andrew Longman, who developed the software and worked with Purdue researchers to integrate the software with radiation detectors and cell phones.
Fischbach (right) and nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins review
radiation-tracking data captured by GPS-enabled cell phones.
“The likely targets of a potential terrorist attack would be big cities with concentrated populations, and a system like this would make it very difficult for someone to go undetected with a radiological dirty bomb in such an area,” said Longman, who also is Purdue alumnus. “The more people are walking around with cell phones and PDAs, the easier it would be to detect and catch the perpetrator.” Tiny solid-state radiation sensors are commercially available.
Long before the sensors would detect significant radiation, the system would send data to a receiving center. “Say a car is transporting radioactive material for a bomb, and that car is driving down Fifth Avenue in New York,” Fischbach said. “As the car passes people, their cell phones individually would send signals to a command center, allowing authorities to track the source.”
The researchers tested the system in November, demonstrating that it is capable of detecting a weak radiation source 15 feet from the sensors.
No More Lost Mail?
A California-based GPS developer, TrackingtheWorld, is producing GPS-equipped envelope inserts designed to help the U.S. Postal Service detect bottlenecks, reports Popular Science. The “letter logger” insert, equipped with a low-power u-blox Antaris 4 GPS module, can withstand sorting machines while recording the letter’s location to a memory card. A vibration- and tilt-sensitive motion detector determines whether the insert was sitting idle, being sorted, or riding in a truck.The data syncs with GPS locations via Google Earth, allowing officials to see where mail sat idle or moved quickly. The USPS is now reviewing results from a trial run.
Child’s Play
Researchers at the University of Bristol have shown that GPS can be used to demonstrate how children as young as three find their way around, reports vnunet.com. Previous research has suggested that humans don’t use landmarks to orient themselves until about age six, but those studies took place in artificial lab environments. Using GPS to track children in a park as they searched for prizes, researchers found that children as young as three use outdoor landmarks, like trees and buildings, to find their way around.
