Cell Phones Could Sniff Out Deadly Chemicals 136
Hugh Pickens writes "Science Daily reports that Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate's Cell-All is an initiative to equip cell phones with a sensor capable of detecting deadly chemicals. A chip costing less than a dollar would be embedded in cell phones and programmed to alert either the cell phone carrier to the presence of toxic chemicals in the air, and/or a central station that can monitor how many alerts in an area are being received. While one alert might be a false positive, hundreds would indicate the need for evacuation. 'Our goal is to create a lightweight, cost-effective, power-efficient solution,' says Stephen Dennis, Cell-All's program manager. Does this always-on surveillance mean that the govenment can track your precise whereabouts whenever it wants? On the contrary, DHS says; Cell-All will operate only on an opt-in basis and will transmit data anonymously."
Sounds Good (Score:2, Interesting)
The posts say it! (Score:2, Interesting)
In Other News: Biology Lab Techs Shot by SWAT (Score:4, Interesting)
I used to work in a genetics lab, and this is a terrifying thought. Imagine 20 lab techs working with chemicals in the same room, easily enough to set off the "low levels indicating danger and not a drill" alarm. Assuming that this is set to detect chemicals that are not yet at dangerous levels, merely anomalous levels, how do they propose to avoid raiding GlaxoSmithKline on a daily basis?
A telescreen in my pocket (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a solution to our energy crisis - connect a generator to George Orwell.
HE only imagined the telescreen being able to hear and see you - not smell you and determine you had committed foodcrime by examining your flatulence.
And of course, if you
a) stand near somebody smoking (ANYTHING)
b) stand near a barbecue
c) stand downwind of somebody fertilizing their yard (OMFG NITROGEN COMPOUNDS! TERRRRRRORRRRRRISTS!)
d) be in a room where somebody is using a non-approved substance
You will be a suspect.
If these chips are so wonderful, why not make them into self-contained modules and locate them throughout our cities, right along with the cameras, microphones, gun-shot detectors, radar units, tire-pressure monitor transponders, and so on.
Re:A telescreen in my pocket (Score:4, Interesting)
If these chips are so wonderful, why not make them into self-contained modules and locate them throughout our cities
The EPA has planted those for DECADES as revenue generators. Essentially the chemical plant equivalent of a red light camera. Go to your nearest chemical plant, look to prevailing downwind direction (assuming there is a prevailing wind direction in your geography) and locate a "one car sized" separately fenced in area with a pickup truck load of sensing gear, and power and phone lines feeding it, and plenty of no trespassing signs and locks. Also if you search 2600 or maybe Phrack from the 80s, you'll find an ancient article on dialing in and reading the results. This is old stuff, very old.
It is actually an intresting idea (Score:3, Interesting)
The idea is not a million miles removed from the folding@home and seti programs. Why build a supercomputer you can't afford when you can utalize existing hardware?
Why install a dense and costly sensor grid when you can disribute the sensor in a much cheaper package? You could of course install countless sensors with their own battery pack, processing power and communication gear, OR you could hitch them to existing gear that is by its nature widely distrubuted.
And with it, you could create a grid that reaches almost anywhere to measure air quality. I am pretty sure there are scientists who have a wet dream thinking of a very dense air measurment grid in urban areas.
Sure, privacy could be an issue...
Oh wait, no it isn't. If you got a phone, "they" can track you already. No special sniffer needed. How many of the privacy nutters got a phone? Your secret overlords thank you for carrying your tracker.
So, no privacy issue is added except perhaps "they" being able to tell you farted.
The idea is very close to using cellphones to track traffic jams. Lots of phone signals not moving? Traffic jam. Why not? The alternative is installing lots and lots of camera's.
Yeah, the tech would need good laws to regulate it, but if done right, it could create a very powerful tool for having a dense sensor grid at marginal costs.
We in the west enjoy excellent weather forcasts thanks to a dense grid of weather station, many of which are operated by amateurs. This could do the same for monitoring air quality with a hundred times refinement. An intresting idea, once you get beyond the knee jerk privacy reaction which anybody with a cellphone has already accepted. Allthough I wouldn't put it behind the average privacy nutter to wrap his cellphone in tinfoil, just in case.