Engineers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California are working on a smart phone that can detect radiation. The phones will continuously glean data as the officers go about their daily business, and the information will be used to draw up maps of radiation that will expose illicit stores of nuclear material.

The wireless “phone” sensor transmits radiation readings over an internet connection to a central computer and the GPS receiver in the phone labels the data with a time and location.

Field tests of prototypes should begin within three months and LLNL is hoping to sign up a manufacturer to mass-produce the RadNet phones, and they could one day even be sold to members of the public. It should be relatively cheap, the target price of the whole units being $1000.

Via New Scientist.