The kachikachi project by Leopold Zyka in Vienna is a proposal to promote the application of a quantum dosimeter chip, a CERN related patented invention described here for distributed radiation measurement.

The technology is more simple and potentially cheaper than the Geiger counters available today, and it could be used by anyone concerned with levels of radiation, either ambient or in foods. The chip is versatile, it can detect and quantify several types of radiation if combined with software and a computer.

“Quantum Dosimetry is a novel invention comprising a method, software and apparatus to determine dose, dose rate and composition of radiation. The Quantum Dosimeter can identify and categorize the individual radiation quanta by recognizing the patterns of the particles detected using a silicon pixel detector such as Medipix or Timepix. The method allows separation of different constituents of radiation, such as electrons, photons, alpha particles, neutrons, ions, muons, and others. It can also determine an energy estimate of the total deposited energy for each of the detected radiation quanta and then compute the contribution of each radiation category to the total effective radiation dose.

Advantages

• The Quantum Dosimeter gives the dose, dose rate and the real biological effect of radiation with a very high accuracy, in real time.
• It can detect radiation from one or more of the following categories: photons, beta-particles, alpha-particles, delta-particles, protons, minimum ionizing energetic ions, fission fragments and neutrons.
• It detects every quantum of the radiation, which means it has the best possible sensitivity.
• When integrated with a Medipix chip it offers a small and lightweight device, such as the size of a USB memory stick.
• Such a device will have low power consumption and could be battery powered.”

Conceivably, this could lead to widespread availability of relatively cheap detectors anyone can connect to their computer via a USB interface. It would make measurement of radioactivity accessible to many, and could lead to the construction of detailed on-the-ground data for radiation mapping.

The medipix chip senses and transmits radiation readings

CERN and the Czech Technical University, the owners of the patent for the chip, are offering licensing and transfer of the technology to the private sector. Unfortunately there is no indication that this might become open source. Still, the radiation from the Fukushima reactor disaster makes deployment of this technology a real and commercially attractive possibility.

The kachikachi project (http://kachikachi.wordpress.com/) is an attempt to promote the specific use as a substitute for Geiger counters for this chip. Other ideas are being solicited on CERN’s technology transfer site.