Smartphone to measure radiation Published duration 22 September 2011

image caption In Fukushima priests have planted sunflowers to help fight radiation

Japanese mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo is developing a smartphone that will measure radiation levels.

The design was inspired by worries over the health implications of the radiation leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The phone will come with changeable "jackets" which will also be able to measure bad breath and body fat.

It will be showcased at a tech show in Japan next month.

Radiation fears

At the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technology, hosted near Tokyo next month, DoCoMo will show off three smartphone 'jackets'' that are fitted with sensors, to monitor body mass as well as level of skin-damaging ultraviolet light.

But the shell that measures radiation levels is likely to prove the most popular.

"Many customers have been nervous about radiation since the Great East Japan Earthquake," DoCoMo's spokesman Daisuke Sakuma told the news agency AFP.

"We had been thinking what services we can provide to address these needs as a telecom carrier," he added.