I’ve seen mention of this idea before — Researchers at Purdue University are working on a system that would put radiation detectors on consumer cellphones — using the phone’s GPS capabilities, the system would create a national map of radiation spikes. The main idea is to head-off the transportation of nuclear materials by terrorists.
“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 global positioning locators, the network of phones would serve as a tracking system.” http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2008a/080122FischbachNuclear.html
“The sensors don’t really perform the detection task individually,” Fischbach said. “The collective action of the sensors, combined with the software analysis, detects the source. The system would transmit signals to a data center, and the data center would transmit information to authorities without alerting the person carrying the phone. Say a car is transporting radioactive material for a bomb, and that car is driving down Meridian Street in Indianapolis or Fifth Avenue in New York. As the car passes people, their cell phones individually would send signals to a command center, allowing authorities to track the source.”
While this is an interesting application, I’m sure that others are thinking of other applications. Since many molecule detectors can be chip-based now, one can imagine sensors to detect pathogens, toxic chemicals, fire or who knows. It also wouldn’t stretch the imagination too far to think of applications a bit further down the road, such as remotely programmable detectors that could adapt to changing needs and concerns. I’m sure there are many that would like to even engineer small-enough-cheap-enough DNA detectors to look for the 10-most-wanted or whatever, though, that is pushing the creep-o-meter up quite a bit. I’ve no doubt that sooner or later the usual civil liberties groups will jump into the fray and demand protections. Hopefully those working in these areas will think ahead that far.
Of course, you can’t help but be reminded of the similarities to the @home programs ranging from molecular folding to SETI. As mobile phones become more than that — mobile computing platforms, the prospect of finding ways to take advantage of millions of mobile units is compelling.
OTOH, all of these things either make money or help the organizations upstream — what about helping the millions of phone owners? What’s really in it for them? If you could come up with some way for the phone owner to profit, even with micro payments, I think you would have A LOT of people sign up. If I knew what that idea was, I probably wouldn’t post it here! However, I expect that whoever does come up with something like this will stand to make a lot of money….
-pfs
