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17 Jun, 2014

Australian Nuclear Science Organisation develops smart phone radiation detector ‘app’

The popularity of smartphones continues to grow with the availability of an ever-growing range of applications. The app, Radioactivity Counter, is designed to measure a person’s exposure to radiation. It claims to accurately detect the dose in the radiation unit microGray per hour (μGy/h) using the phones in-built camera, which is not only sensitive to visible light, but to higher energy gamma photons.

Alison Flynn and her ANSTO colleagues tested the performance of the app against its claims using two different phones: the Apple iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S2. The phones were tested using ANSTO’s Instrument Calibration Facility and the results showed the application is indeed able to measure exposure to radiation. It delivers a linear response to changes in dose, meaning the device can be accurately calibrated to reliably determine the potential dose rate to which a person is exposed.

Read the rest: Smart phone radiation detector ‘app’ tests positive – ANSTO.