Google’s 5 JAN 10 launch of the Nexus One smart phone has captured attention in two main areas: it’s capability as a smart phone, especially in comparison to the Apple iPhone, and the business model Google has adopted, in which it will sell the phone online, unlocked , and also offer an online store. We find another aspect of this phone much more compelling: it’s potential as a full-fledged life support tool. The Nexus One is not unique in this regard, but it substantially adds user choice to the iPhone and other smart phones.

The ubiquitous mobile phone is emerging as one of the most important sources of data about people. Every time someone uses a mobile phone, information can be collected, stored and analyzed, including the phone’s time stamped geo-location, characterisitcs of the user’s voice patterns deduced by signal processing on-phone or at operator facilties, imagery directed by the user, medical emissions and physical activity. This large array of possible applications is enabled by a variety of measurements taken by the sensors on the phone. The  data is processed on phone and in the network. By using measurements from many cell phone users, “crowd sourcing”, or distributed computation for applications, can be accomplished.

The Nexus One platform sports these sensors: a 5-megapixel camera with a Xenon flash, a light sensor, proximity sensor, an accelerometer and GPS receiver.

Here is a list of some generic sensor types and possible applications:

User Parameter	Example Application
Geo-Location	Navigation, Social Networking
Image sensor	Camera, barcode detection; crowd-sourced surveillance
Proximity sensor	Enables screen on/off power management based on proximity to head
Accelerometer	screen orientation; determine speed of fall and provide medical alert; crowd-sourced earthquake detection;
Smoke detector	Enable crowd-sourced fire location
Chemical	Enable crowd-sourced toxin detection