6 ms·

DECO – Using cell phones to detect cosmic rays and other energetic particles

51 points by agmm 6y ago

kuter 6y ago
Very interesting. Here are some papers that they have listed [0]. They are using computer vision to detect charged particles that hit camera image sensors. [0]https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/research https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/research
ArtWomb 6y ago
The "distributed camera" is a central tenet of the intersection of computer vision and the global distribution of cellphones. It's pretty cool to see a distributed radio astronomy telescope array. With the additional benefit that it constitutes a baseline of ground truth in the form of cosmic rays. Not sure its robust enough for all environments and devices. But employing Nature itself is an exciting solution!
sparky4 6y ago
Can't find the link to download this app, can someone post it.
- livre 6y ago
  https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/app https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/app
  - kuterron 6y ago
    Woah, android:targetSdkVersion="7" (Android 2.1, released January 12, 2010). I doubt this app can run (if at all) for any reasonable period of time on a modern Android phone, due to the new power-saving features introduced in newer Android versions.
MauranKilom 6y ago
Would you actually have to place the phone face-up, or is face-down just as good? I'm assuming "on the side" is bad because you'd expect to primarily receive muons moving downward....
- _joel 6y ago
  The main thing that matters is the lens is completely covered (as per https://wipac.wisc.edu/sites/wipac/files/docs/deco_v5.pdf https://wipac.wisc.edu/sites/wipac/files/docs/deco_v5.pdf) Orientation doesn't matter
frabert 6y ago
This project reminds me of a similar one I participated in when I was in High School: https://eee.centrofermi.it/ https://eee.centrofermi.it/ Some students were sent to CERN in Geneva to build detectors (which were essentially sandwiches of copper strips immersed in an atmosphere of sulphur hexafluride and some kind of freon-like gas) hooked up to a custom ASIC. I was tasked to check in with the logger PC and check if the gas flow was ok and if it was still logging etc... The data was then sent to a central server and a map of the rays was built.
bitminer 6y ago
There is also the CREDO app, check the Google Android app store.

51 points by agmm 6y ago

Very interesting. Here are some papers that they have listed [0]. They are using computer vision to detect charged particles that hit camera image sensors. [0]https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/research https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/research

ArtWomb 6y ago

The "distributed camera" is a central tenet of the intersection of computer vision and the global distribution of cellphones. It's pretty cool to see a distributed radio astronomy telescope array. With the additional benefit that it constitutes a baseline of ground truth in the form of cosmic rays. Not sure its robust enough for all environments and devices. But employing Nature itself is an exciting solution!

sparky4 6y ago

Can't find the link to download this app, can someone post it.

livre 6y ago
https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/app https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco/app
- kuterron 6y ago
  Woah, android:targetSdkVersion="7" (Android 2.1, released January 12, 2010). I doubt this app can run (if at all) for any reasonable period of time on a modern Android phone, due to the new power-saving features introduced in newer Android versions.

MauranKilom 6y ago

Would you actually have to place the phone face-up, or is face-down just as good? I'm assuming "on the side" is bad because you'd expect to primarily receive muons moving downward....

_joel 6y ago
The main thing that matters is the lens is completely covered (as per https://wipac.wisc.edu/sites/wipac/files/docs/deco_v5.pdf https://wipac.wisc.edu/sites/wipac/files/docs/deco_v5.pdf) Orientation doesn't matter

frabert 6y ago

This project reminds me of a similar one I participated in when I was in High School: https://eee.centrofermi.it/ https://eee.centrofermi.it/ Some students were sent to CERN in Geneva to build detectors (which were essentially sandwiches of copper strips immersed in an atmosphere of sulphur hexafluride and some kind of freon-like gas) hooked up to a custom ASIC. I was tasked to check in with the logger PC and check if the gas flow was ok and if it was still logging etc... The data was then sent to a central server and a map of the rays was built.

bitminer 6y ago

There is also the CREDO app, check the Google Android app store.