Here’s how their app works: Inside your smartphone’s camera, whether a Galaxy S5 or an iPhone 6, are silicon photodiode pixels — the things that detect visible light and turn it into something you can see on your screen. But as the UC team explains in their new paper (PDF), they can also detect high-energy particles. The app is basically a piece of software that records when your camera senses these particles, then records the levels, location, and time of the “shower”.
It runs itself automatically and imperceptibly only when your phone is charging, so it doesn’t suck up battery life, and it only uploads relevant captures to UC’s server when you’re connected to Wi-Fi. What about privacy? The data the app is uploading is able to detect the different between shower data and actual photos, and will never upload actual images. The team at UC says they have spent over a year on the beta of the app, all because to achieve the number of users they need for their telescope to function, their app needs to be as invisible and convenient as possible — hence the focus on battery life, data and privacy.
Another cool detail? If your phone records shower data using the app — which you can request access to here, although it is still in beta at the moment — and the UC team uses in an analysis, you’ll be listen as an author in the subsequent paper.
