Methods and circuits for detecting and reporting high-energy particles using mobile phones and other portable computing devices

摘要

Described are mobile phones that incorporate radiation detectors formed using commonly available semiconductor memories. The radiation detectors require little or no additional hardware over what is available in a conventional phone, and can thus be integrated with little expense or packaging modifications. The low cost supports a broad distribution of detectors. Data collected from constellations of detector-equipped mobile phones can be used to locate mislaid or stolen nuclear materials or other potentially dangerous radiation sources. Phone users can be alerted to radiation dangers in their vicinity, and aggregated phone-specific error data can serve as user-specific dosimeters.