SAR stands for Specific Absorption Rate and is a measure counting the rate at which the body absorbs energy from an electromagnetic field or radio frequency. You might be familiar with SAR numbers from the technical specifications of mobile devices where manufacturers indicate the SAR numbers for that specific device as well as the top 20 list of cell phones with the highest radiation levels.

If you own Samsung Android powered device — like the AT&T Captivate — you can use an application called Tawkon which uses the device's GPS and accelerometer to determine the relative position to your body and calculate the amount of radiation the body is exposed to at that certain moment. The application will alert you via a device vibration when a certain radiation threshold has been reached so the user knows that moving to another part of the room or office or even holding the device a few inches away or in another position will greatly reduce the radiation exposure.

Tawkon is available in the Android Market after its rejection from Apple's App Store based on undocumented APIs but given the calculations the app makes, it needs real life testing on all the devices so currently only BlackBerry 9700, 9000, 8900, and 8520 are supported, together with several Samsung Android devices, with more manufacturers being added soon, as Gil Friedlander, co-founder and CEO of Tawkon said.

(Via: Cnet and Tawkon)