News & Analysis
Personal Geiger counter, anyone?
Junko Yoshida
11/17/2011 9:32 AM EST
Editor's note: To add context to the following story, please read "Forget ‘Occupy Wall Street,’ time to ‘Abandon Fukushima.’"
YOKOHAMA – Radiation is something you cannot smell or see. Unless you have your own Geiger counter, you can’t hear it, either. But that isn’t stopping the Japanese — probably the most radiation-conscious people in the world these days — from figuring out a way to “sniff it out.”
So, inevitably, Japan’s Embedded Technology conference here this week offered a variety of affordable personal radiation monitoring devices.
Michihiro Imaoka, a hardware designer running his own design house called Imaoca Engineering Office, has devised a home-made personal Geiger counter, called “Imaocande,” connected with an Android-based smartphone. It’s designed to crowd-source and tweet the collected Geiger-data to the cloud.
For its handheld personal Geiger counter, Imaoka’s company is using a second-hand Geiger-Mueller tube, bought on eBay from Red Army surplus in Russia. The real meat of his development lies in creating a system to connect it to an Android smartphone via the audio interface. By using GPS, CPU and connectivity functions already available in the smartphone, it’s possible to “tweet” the radiation data (detected level, time and longitude/latitude) collected by the Imaocande. The tweeted data can then be shared with masses, once it is mapped into a radiation map using another piece of software.
Michihiro Imaoka listens to audio pulse generated by his personal Geiger counter as he brings closer to the device a small packet of radiated soil he brought back from Fukushima
Imaoka has been sharing the information on how to build the Imaocande by offering classes throughout Japan. “I think that there are close to 100 units of Imaocande out there.”
Asked if the accuracy of a patchwork Geiger counter might be a concern, Imaoka said, “This is meant to be an affordable personal device, allowing people to sense whether where they stand now is radioactive.”
Imaoka, however, added that one can correlate data gathered by such personal Geiger counters with information released by the Japan Space Weather Information Center, using Cloud services.
“It can help improve the reliability of the collected data.” Imaoka stressed, “What’s important here is that this can offer consumers a means of gathering information without being solely dependent upon the government or big businesses [like Tokyo Electric Power Co.]”
Imaoka estimated the bill of materials for Imaocande is less than 5,000 yen ($65). “The most expensive part is a Geiger-Mueller tube – which is about $50.”
In a more conventional (corporate) vein, CA Limited, a Fukushima-based embedded system and software development company, showed off several models of personal radiation monitoring systems featuring different connectivity technologies at the Embedded Technology show. Connectivity used between the company’s personal Geiger counter and a PC and/or a smartphone ranges from Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB to pulse audio and color LCD.
A variety of personal Geiger counters developed by CA Limited, a Fukushima-based company
Katsuhiko Terawaki, CA’s president, developed the system. In his company’s booth, he demonstrated his systems by using a packet of radiated soil (which he collected from his home, located within 65 kilometers of the now-infamous Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant).
Terawaki did not mince words about how he feels Japanese government and Japanese society has maintained a fallacy of “radiation safety” – even to this date.
Terasaki cited last weekend’s East Japan Women’s “Ekiden,” a long-distance relay running race that required female athletes to run through the radiation hot zone in Fukushima city. Terasaki called the event “nothing but an act of lunacy.”
At the end of March, Terasaki himself evacuated from his home to Yamagata, a nearby prefecture. But he commutes to his company, still based in Fukushima. He acknowledged, “At first, I was afraid to tell other people that I abandoned my home in Fukushima. But lately, I’ve been straight with them. While I can’t force people to evacuate, I no longer hesitate to express my own opinion.”
Terasaki pointed out that there are large, standalone radiation monitoring systems – such as one developed by two other Fukushima-based companies, Kaine and NR. Equipped with a solar panel to generate power and a large LED display to show the radiation level in micro-Sieverts per hour, these systems can be installed in public designated locations and cost about a million yen ($13,000). But such systems monitor certain public spaces only. Both Imaoka and Terasaki believe that there are a number of micro hotspots, previously gone unnoticed or not likely to be discovered in the future by such public radiation monitoring equipment.
Terasaki said, “People want their own personal radiation monitoring system.” He was speaking from experience, recalling March 15th (four days after the tsunami) when he heard, inside his house, a Geiger counter he had bought years ago, pulsing and beeping at a rate of 60 beeps a minute.
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
ChrisGammell
11/17/2011 11:12 AM EST
Junko, have you seen the Open Source Hardware (OSHW) Geiger Counter Kit by Jeff Keyzer? There has been a lot of interest in the hobby community in radiation monitoring, much like the people you interviewed in this article. It looks like it has similar BOM costs, but is available in kit form for easy build access for the public. mightyohm.com/blog/products/geiger-counter/
Sign in to Reply
junko.yoshida
11/17/2011 11:34 AM EST
Thanks, Chris. Yes, I heard about Jeff's stuff. But I didn't know the detail. Thanks for the URL!
Sign in to Reply
DrQuine
11/17/2011 12:25 PM EST
The challenge is that natural radiation sources (kitty litter, cement floors) or people undergoing radiation treatment will cause false alarms. Uploading and sharing such data as the overall ambient radiation level could be very misleading. Already law enforcement is having challenges when screening for homeland security; this will quickly disseminate the data without review..
Sign in to Reply
Luis Sanchez
11/17/2011 3:31 PM EST
Kitty litter?! is that of any cat? !!!
I think once a lot of data is gathered, the noise will reduce and the information will provide a trend that may be easily confirmed with a proper device.
And also consider that in due time, the technology will be good enough to be accurate.
Sign in to Reply
iniewski
11/17/2011 1:48 PM EST
I agree with DrQuine...there will be millions of false positives if devices like this penetrate even slightly consumer market...but hey if for $100 gadget I can check whether my sushi is radioactive today why not try it! ;-)...Kris
Sign in to Reply
junko.yoshida
11/17/2011 6:43 PM EST
I totally understand the perils of false positives.
What we all need to understand, however, is the tremendous pressure and worries many of people in Fukushima and elsewhere are under these days.
You can choose to believe that your government is doing a great job gathering accurate data. But how much of it is actually being released to public?
And who knows how many “micro hot spots” exist in a radius between the designated public radiation monitoring systems?
To add the context to this personal Geiger counter movement, please read the following blog of mine:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/other/4230717/Forget--Occupy-Wall-Street--time-to--Abandon-Fukushima-
Sign in to Reply
Robotics Developer
11/17/2011 3:55 PM EST
It looks like an interesting project. I would think that knowing that there is higher radiation currently would be useful. I wonder though, would would you do if it was at home, at work, or on the way to/from somewhere? If I remember correctly those of us in the North East have to deal with radon gas in our basements. I wonder if this device (or others like it) could be used to detect if this radioactive gas was present?
Sign in to Reply
Mike50
11/21/2011 8:14 AM EST
Radon gas decays into alpha particles. A special geiger counter is needed to measure these larger particles.
Sign in to Reply
iniewski
11/17/2011 4:17 PM EST
I think what would be very useful if you could determine the energy of the radiation source (at least rooughly)...this way you can eliminate radon gas or other background sources...Kris
Sign in to Reply
Edward Thermals
11/18/2011 8:23 AM EST
Hello Junko, with so many engineering types on these web sites, I can't see why all of us can't come up with a usable detector that in time, would have reduced positives.
We all wish you and your fellow citizens well. The "The Fukushima 50" are all very brave people to continue to go in.
Ed
Sign in to Reply
resistion
11/20/2011 11:21 AM EST
Some of these radioisotopes are slow decayers - that's what makes them so insidious. Would they produce a strong enough signal within a short observation time?
Sign in to Reply
Max the Magnificent
11/21/2011 10:56 AM EST
This reminds me of that Geiger Counter kit I build and the problems I had getting the little scamp to actually count -- check out my blog with a video of it eventually counting and also links to other blogs and articles describing what it took to get this working (http://bit.ly/tSvC5w)
Sign in to Reply
Vince_Mazur
11/25/2011 1:42 PM EST
The case for Personal Radiation Measurement (PRM), as I call it, has been in place for quite some time for a variety of reasons outside of catastrophic events like Fukushima. For example, metal imported from India in the buttons of French elevators were found to contain radiation above the legal limit back in 2008. Radiation can be in virtually anything that comes out of the ground. Combine this reality with the global supply channel and people are likely being exposed to radiation (most of which is probably not harmful) without their knowledge.
This was my rationale over three years ago, while working full time as an EDA sales professional, that I embarked on a weekend project to develop a device to detect, measure and monitor ionizing radiation. Today, the PRM-8000 Geiger counter is a US-made, commercial product used in Japan.
The exporting nature of Japan and the proximity of the event to the large population are understated in the Fukushima incident. This event will have considerably different ramifications outside of the local zone, relative to TMI or Chernobyl.
Sign in to Reply
iniewski
11/25/2011 1:54 PM EST
thank you Vince for an interesting perspective...EDA sales professional embarking on PRM device design!...I was intrgued by your statement "the proximity of the event to the large population are understated in the Fukushima incident"...would you mind elaborating on this topic? Kris
Sign in to Reply
Vince_Mazur
11/26/2011 1:57 AM EST
Kris, to elaborate, my comment was intended to imply that relative to the other nuclear disasters the proximity to large populations and companies involved in exporting is distinctively larger.
Sign in to Reply
dennishobson
8/17/2012 12:01 PM EDT
is that going to be aproduct for large sales? i dont really see that beeing so usefull if not in warzoner or something like that,, or near nuclear plants.
http://www.concessionaria-hyundai.com.br
Sign in to Reply
iniewski
8/17/2012 12:36 PM EDT
Given low enough price point (under $200) there will be millions units sold worldwide, "everyone" will need one when the next nuclear plant malfunctions...a major nuclear plant disaster is happening every 10 years or so, minor ones on a annual basis so it is only a question of time before we see the next Fukushima...Kris
Sign in to Reply