Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son
SoftBank, Japan’s third-largest mobile phone operator, has revealed its plans to bring out a smartphone that can detect radiation, in the wake of last year’s nuclear plant disaster at Fukishima.
The company unveiled its summer line-up at a conference in Tokyo. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son spoke about how the company is adding an Android 4.0 smartphone, a Pantone 5 107SH version to the company’s portfolio. The device will have an built-in radiation detector, a world first for the smartphone marketplace.
Apparently, the radiation technology will be activated when you press a button on the front of the phone. The technology will then take around 10 seconds to take a radiation reading, before placing it on a current location on a map.
The Pantone 5 smartphone will be available in eight colours and will include IC chips made by Sharp to detect between 0.05 and 9.99 microsieverts per hour of gamma rays, according to the Japanese news network Kyodo News.
The phone is expected to be available in Japan this summer. Son told reporters the phone will be in the affordable price range.
