DHS Funds Research To Turn Smart Phones Into Personal Security
Devices
The Department of Homeland
Security has gotten initial funding for research which could
eventually turn your iPhone into a chemical detection device that
would automatically call authorities when it senses a dangerous
substance.
Called "Cell-All" it proposes to equip cell phones with a sensor
capable of detecting deadly chemicals at minimal cost—to the
manufacturer (a buck a sensor) and to your phone’s battery
life. “Our goal is to create a lightweight, cost-effective,
power-efficient solution,” says Stephen Dennis,
Cell-All’s program manager.
The official DHS blog reports that Cell-All would be designed to
regularly sniff the surrounding air for certain volatile chemical
compounds. When a threat is sensed, your phone would use one of two
alerts. For personal safety issues such as a chlorine gas
leak, a warning is sounded; the user could choose a vibration,
noise, text message, or phone call. For catastrophes such as a
sarin gas attack, details—including time, location, and the
compound — are phoned to an emergency operations center.
While the first warning is beamed to individuals, the second
warning works best with crowds. DHS says Cell-All is a major
advancement in "crowdsourcing" human safety.
DHS contends that anywhere a chemical threat breaks out ... an
airport, a mall, a bus, subway, or office ... Cell-All would alert
the authorities automatically. Detection, identification, and
notification all take place in less than 60 seconds. Because the
data are delivered digitally, Cell-All reduces the chance of human
error. And by activating alerts from many people at once, Cell-All
avoids the problem of false positives. The end result, DHS says is
that emergency responders can get to the scene sooner and cover a
larger area—essentially anywhere people are—casting a
wider net than stationary sensors can.
And, DHS says that Cell-All answers questions of privacy by
operating only on an opt-in basis and transmitting data
anonymously. “Privacy is as important as technology,”
says Dennis. “After all, for Cell-All to succeed, people must
be comfortable enough to turn it on in the first place.”
And when DHS and TSA say it's secure and private, you can take
that to the bank.
Still, we wonder how far away can we be from smart phones which
can report to our employers if we smoke in the stairwell, or be
hacked on behalf of suspicious spouses to identify a brand of
perfume? As someone we know used to say, "This is the United States
of America ... anything's possible ... all it takes is money."