10 amazing things you never knew a smartphone could do

1. Smartphones forecasting the weather

Networking expert OpenSignal has discovered something interesting: the sensors in Android phones designed to measure battery temperature, light, pressure and so on can be used to generate surprisingly accurate weather reports.

Get enough phones involved and you've got a weather sensing network. Today the data just reports, but prediction is the logical next step.

There are medical applications too: "Imagine your doctor could instantly access data on which countries you've been in, the extremes of pressure and temperature you'd experienced, the amount of exercise you are getting, even the humidity where you live," OpenSignal says.

OpenSignal reckons that smartphone networks could analyse and predict the weather

2. Smartphones powering satellites

In February, a Google Nexus One went into orbit - not in an astronaut's pocket, but as the brains of the STRaND-1 satellite.

A joint project between the University of Surrey's Space Centre and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, the smartphone-powered "nanosatellite" will run experimental apps to collect data from space

3. Smartphones saving the rainforests

Detecting chainsaws may sound like a novelty app, but it's a serious business: in Indonesia, the non-profit organisation Rainforest Connection wants to use donated Android phones to detect illegal logging.

As New Scientist reports: "The phones are outfitted with solar panels specifically designed to take advantage of the brief periods when light reaches the forest floor. Their microphones stay on at all times, and software listens for the telltale growl of a chainsaw, which triggers an alert."

4. Smartphones as mobile medical labs

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed an iPhone cradle and app that turns the device into a fully featured mobile medical lab that uses the phone's camera to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other organisms.

As RedOrbit reports: "The cradle contains a series of smaller versions of the optical components found in much larger and more expensive lab devices... although the cradle only holds $200 worth of optical components, it is just as accurate as $50,000 models in the lab".

5. Smartphones driving cars

Google's self-driving cars carry around $30,000 of high-tech hardware and sensors - but students at Australia's Griffith University reckon they can get the job done with a single smartphone.

Rather than LIDAR sensors and stacks of cameras, the students have built a prototype that relies mainly on the phone's camera and built-in GPS.click for more