Sniffing Bombs With Mobiles

Deploying detectors in mobile phones is promising, experts say, because the greatest concentration will be in cities, precisely where dirty bombers are most likely to strike. "You meet the enemy at his point of desire," and "make it most difficult for him" at the place he prefers to attack, says Longman.

The race to deploy a mobile detection system is on. The technology could soon cost less than $100 per cell phone, says John Peeters, CEO of Gentag, a Washington, D.C.-based company developing a system similar to the Purdue model. Simon Labov, an engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a Department of Energy agency in Livermore, California, is working on a device, called RadNet, which he thinks will be ready to test in a few hundred cell phones in 18 months.

Funding at U.S. government labs and agencies has slowed, however, perhaps due to uncertainty over the budget priorities of the next administration. Even so, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said it will financially support the most promising system. This could include compensation for participating citizens, who will have to carry slightly larger cell phones equipped with radiation detectors. While cash might entice some, the designers of mobile-phone detection systems note that many people would likely opt in simply to play a new and unexpected role in protecting national security.

© 2008