Patent ID: 8319188

Claim:
A portable gamma-ray detector for indicating the direction to a source of gamma-rays, the detector comprising: a plurality of scintillation bodies respectively coupled to a corresponding plurality of photo-detectors, wherein the scintillation bodies are arranged around a pointing axis of the detector so that in use gamma-rays from different directions away from the pointing axis interact in a preferential manner with different ones of the scintillation bodies; a processing circuit operable to receive output signals from the photo-detectors and to provide an indication of the direction to a source relative to the pointing axis of the detector based on the output signals, the indication being based on a plurality of predetermined and differently sized geometric shapes, a display screen, wherein the processing circuit is operable to display a graphical indication of the direction to a source relative to the pointing axis of the detector on the display screen, the graphical indication comprising ones of the plurality of differently sized geometric shapes, wherein output signals from the photo-detectors are used to display corresponding ones of the plurality of predetermined and differently sized geometric shapes on the display screen, and wherein the processing circuit is further operable to generate one or more energy loss spectra from the output signals.