Perfect for field use
The Palm CZT Spectrometer is meant to be taken out to the field to make a specific measurement, and then with its wireless capabilities, if it detects something, it can instantly email the data back to the National Nuclear Triage System and have expert analysis done by a specialist.

The decision to use a palmOne handheld rather than developing a custom interface was an easy one for LANL scientists, according to Murray. "Palm handhelds offer an easy to use interface and excellent power efficiency. It would have taken a long time for us to create our own interface and we don't have the resources to upgrade and improve the interface over time the way palmOne can. And, by using the Palm platform, people can write their own programs to analyze the data," Murray said. Murray also expects other handheld programs related to radiation exposure will be developed for use with the detector, such as radiation exposure treatment guidelines.

Planning ahead
"We wanted to provide a platform that would be flexible in the future, but would keep things very simple for the user," Murray said. Eventually he expects users to use their handheld to take a photo of a scene and transmit it back to experts along with the radiation detection data so experts can even see the scene.

Los Alamos National Laboratory hopes to cut the cost of manufacturing each device by at least half, in part by spreading the word to developers that the technology is licensable.

"The Lab would be happy to see some company with engineering resources getting involved in commercially developing the Palm CZT Spectrometer," said William S. Murray, the lab scientist at Los Alamos National Labs who designed the device. Cutting the manufacturing cost will allow a larger deployment of the devices to border patrol officers and other first responders. Currently, a contractor in Pennsylvania manufactures the device for the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Christine Harland Williams is President of Harland Communications and tracks handheld solutions used in the enterprise. She can be reached at http://www.harlandwebs.com.