When Everyone has a Tricorder, We'll All be Safer
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with Qualcomm, NASA, and a number of mobile handset manufacturers to produce next generation smart phones that could minimize casualties associated with some kinds of terrorist attacks.
The project, called “Cell-All,” one day hopes to place environmental sensors in nearly all mobile handsets. When a phone detects a threat-from sarin gas for example-it will notify its owner and inform the Department of Homeland Security about the danger.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with Qualcomm, NASA, and a number of mobile handset manufacturers to produce next generation smart phones that could minimize casualties associated with some kinds of terrorist attacks.
The project, called “Cell-All,” one day hopes to place environmental sensors in nearly all mobile handsets. When a phone detects a threat-from sarin gas for example-it will notify its owner and inform the Department of Homeland Security about the danger.
The Cell-All solution uses a semiconductor-like environmental sensor which reacts to various airborne poisons. These reactions, which will likely be manifested as a change in physical color, will be read by an embedded CMOS image sensor and analyzed on the phone's processor or on a discrete device.
Crowd Sourcing an Early Warning System
When the Department of Homeland Security received notice of a possible poison gas threat, it could verify the attack by activating the environmental sensors on other mobile phones in the vicinity. In the case of an attack at a public place, like a baseball stadium, a shopping mall, or a subway station, the Department of Homeland Security could then send a text message to everyone in the vicinity, offering evacuation instructions even as emergency personnel were on the way.
If Cell-All worked, it might save hundreds or thousands of lives thanks to its crowd-sourcing approach to detecting a terrorist attack.
Think of it as Your Own Passive Tricorder
As I tried to get my mind around some of the Cell-All scenarios described on the Homeland Security site, I confess to having had visions of Mr. Spock of the U.S.S. Enterprise measuring potentially dangerous atmospheric components with his tricorder. I suppose, I was imagining the Cell-All as a sort of passive tricorder, sampling the ambient air anytime you made a call or sent a text.
Put another way, Cell-All will be adding “passive tricorder” to the list of features that the typical modern mobile handset already includes-a CMOS camera, GPS, MP3 player, Internet browsing, etc.
Remember the Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo Attack
Such a converged device, would have, perhaps, saved 13 lives in Tokyo in 1995. As you may recall, in March 1995, the Aum Shinrikyo or Aleph cult released some homemade sarin gas (it started in liquid form) into the Toyko Metro in an effort to hasten the end of the world.
In spite of the cult's relative incompetence both in manufacturing the sarin (it was extremely weak compared to the weapons grade sarin modern terrorist may have access to) and in delivering it, thousands were seriously injured and, as implied above, 13 people were killed.
If Cell-All were implemented and a similar attack took place on U.S. soil, the outcome might be very different. As the gas was released a nearby phone would sound the alarm. Thanks to Qualcomm, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and other contributors, it might only be a second or two before dozens of other phones had confirmed the presence of the gas and warned their owners to leave the area immediately.
Cell-All Coming Soon?
Before it is likely to be implemented, Cell-All must overcome at least two hurdles. First, the Department of Homeland security wants the system to add no more than $1 to a phone's bill of material. Second, the system must not adversely affect battery life. With field tests for Cell-All scheduled for this month or next, it is possible that the solution could find its way into phones in the next two years.
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