Monday, October 4, 2010

Android Radiation App

Tawkon, a small Israeli startup company, announced Monday that it released an application for Android phones that will detect cell phone radiation. The company's mobile application uses an algorithm that measures your Specific Absorption Rate or SAR. This is the rate at which your whole body absorbs energy from a radio frequency magnetic field. Specifically, the company measures the amount of radiation that is emitted from the phone and it uses the phone's GPS technology and accelerometers to gauge the position and proximity of the device to the body to determine the amount of radiation that is being absorbed into the body. The purpose of this application is to help users realize how much radiation is going being transmitted to them as they are talking on the phone. The company said that it is not to scare people away from using cell phones. Scientists are still unaware of the damages cell phone radiation does to the body. Apparently, the further away the cell phone is from the body, the less radiation it will absorb. A lot of cell phone companies have moved the antenna lower on the phone so it reduces the radiation that is directly by your brain. Personally, I think all of this information will scare some people and I think the application is unnecessary. The company also mentioned that there is a built in map that shows where radiation levels are high and low in the country. I think this is going a little overboard.
-Clay Chapman

3 comments:

  1. Personally I don't think that I want to know how much radiations is pumping into my head while I talk on the phone for hours at a time...Thats just me though.

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  3. I find the entire idea of this APP to be sort of comical. No one who actually has to use a Radiation Detection device for there job would actually say, "oh I'm going swop out my old detector for the one on my cell phone." And, unless its for your job I can't imagine why you'd actually need it for anything serious. So really, its just sort of a gimmick APP for people to buy have fun with and then, eventually, just let sit in the back of there phone taking up harddrive space. I don't think i'd buy it.

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