Bomb sniffing laptops and radiation detectors in your cell phone

The news out of Purdue University that they are developing sensors which fit inside a cell phone that can detect radiation, and thus perhaps stop the detonation of a nuclear bomb by terrorists is a bit outlandish to my way of thinking. "It is meant to be small, cheap and eventually built into laptops, personal digital assistants and cell phones," says the press release. The idea is that the more people armed wit

The news out of Purdue University that they are developing sensors which fit inside a cell phone that can detect radiation, and thus perhaps stop the detonation of a nuclear bomb by terrorists is a bit outlandish to my way of thinking.

"It is meant to be small, cheap and eventually built into laptops, personal digital assistants and cell phones," says the press release.

The idea is that the more people armed with radiation detectors the better chance we have of getting a terrorist before they detonate a device.

"We are asking the public to push for this," said Andrew Longman, the system developer.

The system is capable of detecting a weak radiation source 15 feet from the sensors.

My bet is that like me, law enforcement agencies will think the idea is unworkable because of the number of false alarms these detectors will generate on a daily basis. The alarms will be so great that eventually the alerts will be ignored.

I can imagine a crowd of angry citizens surrounding some poor soul, shaking their cell phones at him only because he happens to wearing an antique watch with a radium dial.

In fact, don't most devices give off some amount of radiation, including television sets and PCs?

What’s next, bomb sniffing laptops?