this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
149 points (98.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

28530 readers
1059 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I've been very stressed lately and have been doing some window shopping to calm down. I'm interested in gadgets, but a lot of things can just be replaced with apps. I realize a phone won't replace very large appliances like refrigerators or washing machines so I'm trying to scope my question to portable devices. So what are some portable devices or gadgets that their specialization hasn't been replaced by smart phone apps? Extra points if they're super useful and reliable.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Radiation detectors. Such as the Radiacode or the Open Gamma Detector.

Binoculars are quite portable, very useful, and phones don't do a good job at zooming in like that.

Smart watches integrate with phones but the phones by themselves are not so good at measuring the heart rate and other parameters directly.

Mini projectors. UV flashlights. Tools in general... There is so much actually. What type of gadgets are you looking for?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Ooh, cool! 😁 That detector seems to be working only in "Geiger mode", which means that it can count the number of X-rays/Gamma particles but it does not estimate their energy. So, the dedicated devices are still better in that they allow you to identify the source of the radiation by measuring the counts and the energy distribution simultaneously.

It probably would not be too difficult to build the open gamma detector into something like a pinephone. I don't think that has been done yet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

There were a couple projector phones. Samsung Galaxy Beam 1 & 2

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Samsung S2x Ultra has 10x optical zoom. That's pretty much a <100€ binocular right there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

My experience with phone zoom has been underwhelming so far, but I would like to check out the Samsung S2x's 10x zoom when I have the chance!

Still, I really like using binoculars because they transport me next to what I am looking at and do so in very high definition. I do have >100€ binoculars though, colors look very nice through them. I think it will be difficult to replicate via a screen.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Well the phone is a bit of a "jack of trades master of none". You pretty much always will have a better time with a dedicated device, but the fact that the phone is always in your pocket is just so damn convenient.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Not comparable for viewing purposes, don't bother. But it's good for capturing a memory of it.

The light isn't enough, there's ai artefacts, lower refresh rate makes it obvious the movements aren't real time. Not a monocular replacement.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Can phones "detect" really high radiation on the camera if it's high enough or is that film only?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Cleverly, even low levels can be detected. I love how creative early smartphone developers could be.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rdklein.radioactivity

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

What do you mean? Early apps was all stuff like this that nobody used. Nowadays apps are useful fintech services and photo filter apps that cost less than a coffee per month and fun free games that everyone can play, isn’t that much better?

/s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yes. The camera pixels generate a current in response to light. You can add some filters to block certain wavelengths of light (like UV) from getting to the camera sensor, and tune the pixels so that they respond more to to specific colors. But X-rays and gamma rays can just pass through the filter. Often they will pass through sensor as well, but, in the cases that they do get absorbed by the sensor, they can also produce a current that to the camera's readout electronics looks like other light would.

The gamma detectors I mentioned are very very sensitive. They respond to single X-ray/Gamma ray particles. These detectors can count how many individual particles collide with a small crystal cube every second. These crystals are special in that they produce a very tiny flash of light when an X-ray or gamma particle collides with them. As an added bonus, these sensors can directly measure the energy of the particles by measuring the strength of the flash, and from this information they can construct not only the total counts but also a spectrum. With this extreme sensitivity these detectors can measure small quantities of radiation that come from space, from rocks, and from other materials.

I looked for a video of a phone going through an X-ray machine, and found these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8iSoPhtY3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1YaroH6lHA

The white specks that you can see near second 25 (first video) and second 34 (second video) could be a result of the X-rays. I am not sure, but it seems reasonable to me. On contrast, when I put my radiacode through the X-ray machine in the airport the radiacode reacts very strongly and becomes saturated.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I believe they can.