The world’s first radiation sensing cell phone

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:57:39 +0000

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan’s brought the world the Geigergram, the open source Geiger counter gadget, and now the world’s first radiation-sensing cell phone, according to Asiajin. Softbank announced on Monday that it would start shipping the Pantone 5 (107SH), a cell phone made by Sharp, on the Android platform, complete with a radiation measurement in it.

By pressing a dedicated button, users can measure radiation and track it on a map. The phone comes in eight different colors.

The move shows just how commonplace radiation fears have become in certain parts of Japan, and also spotlights how everyday Japanese are opting for a sort of grassroots style system for making sure their food, water and environment are safe. There was widespread distrust of government radiation data in the wake of Fukushima and many Japanese citizens have started doing their own measurements.

In the same vein, Xbox hacker and co-founder of the Chumby project, Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, designed an open-source Geiger counter for Japanese citizens earlier this year. Huang designed the Geiger counter to be “suitable for everyday civilian use,” affordable, intuitive, easy to use and “sufficiently stylish.”

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The world’s first radiation sensing cell phone