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Google and some students from the University of California sent a batch of Samsung Nexus S smartphones up to around 32,000 meters in coolers attached to weather balloons to take some awesome pictures and gather gyroscopic data from the phones. The seven Nexus S units took about three hours to get up there before popping, and another half hour to come back down to earth within about 200 miles of the launch area. They managed to recover all but one balloon, which isn’t too bad at all.
It’s pretty awesome that the Samsung Nexus S managed to handle the rigours of near space and a parachute-assisted drop without being irreparably damaged. I’d really like to see the quality of the pictures that they took through the window cut into the coolers.
Here’s a little video showing off the whole project, and if you’d like to see what else the coordinator has worked on in the past with cell phones in balloons, check out his blog.
[NewScientist via Engadget]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
