Events

The Future Phone will Measure Radiation

The first presentation of the unique, mobile phone-compatible dosimeter-radiometer DO-RA took place in Moscow on November 1. The operator of the DO-RA project is Intersoft Eurasia JSC, a resident of Skolkovo in the nuclear technology cluster. The market value of the exclusive rights to the DO-RA intangible assets is more than $100 million, according to a method used to evaluate intangible assets consisting of patent rights developed by Deloitte & Touch specifically for state corporation RUSNANO.

Russian inventor Vladimir Elin developed the dosimeter-radiometer on the platform of a semiconductor detector. It can either be built into a mobile phone/smartphone or be used as a separate detachable unit. The detachable sensor operates via a standard USB-port or remotely (via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi), thus turning DO-RA into an assembly-ready, mobile dosimeter-radiometer. The DO-RA is run by specially developed for this purpose software packages and a licensed operating system used by each individual mobile/smart phone. The currently available software makes the DO-RA compatible with iOS, Android and WP7 platforms, with support for MacOS, RIM Blackberry, Windows and Linux planned for the end of the year. The DO-RA is powered by a standard mobile phone / smartphone battery.

Main functions of the mobile dosimeter-radiometer DO-RA:

– calculate cumulative radiation exposure of the owner of a mobile phone at different time intervals (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, annually);

– inform the device owner of acceptable, medium and excessive radiation exposure levels via specific audible signals;

– draw graphs illustrating the state of the internal organs and systems of the device owner that reflect the level of acquired or accumulated radiation;

– make recommendations to the device owner as to ways of avoiding accumulation of radiation;

– automatically and in real time generate reports on the radiation status of the environment surrounding the device owner, with coordinates based on GPS and GLONASS positioning systems (through mobile carriers);

– the radiation status data gathered as per the device's coordinates is transmitted to the World Radiation Monitoring Center only to be later returned in the form of detailed terrain maps, expanses of water and other objects marked according to the level of their radiation contamination.

The future plans include the use of the graphene nanostructure in the bodies of the next generation devices. An appropriate patent has already been issued. "The DO-RA may not be a device we will use very often in our daily lives," says project leader Vladimir Elin. "Still, there are situations in life when it can potentially save your life or, at the very least, protect you from harmful effects of radiation."

November 1, 2011