Star Trek Tricorder Ready For Beam Up

[Ryan Ruck]

Star Trek Tricorder Ready For Beam Up

The Star Trek vision of analysing rocks and minerals with the sweep of a handheld device has taken a step towards becoming science rather than science fiction.

"We are developing a tricorder," said Robert Downs, associate professor of geosciences at The University of Arizona in Tucson.

Professor Downs is using a technique called Raman spectroscopy to compile a library of spectral fingerprints for all the Earth's minerals. About 1,500 of the 4,000 known minerals have been catalogued so far.

Although the current Raman spectrometer takes up an area the size of a tabletop, Professor Downs's colleague M. Bonner Denton, a professor of chemistry and geosciences at the University of Arizona, is developing a pocket-sized spectrometer that will be used on the 2009 Mars rover.

A Raman spectrometer fires a laser beam at a sample which excites the mineral's atoms and emits a weak light that has the unique wavelength of the material. "It's like a fingerprint," said Professor Downs.

The technique is named after Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930 for figuring out the underlying process.

The Raman technique is preferable to other methods of examining minerals as it does not require a piece of the sample to be ground down or polished in a specific way.

One use for a handheld version of the spectrometer would be the identification of gemstones.

It is truly amazing how much Star Trek technology is becoming mainstream.

You have cell phones that are nearly identical to the communicators. You have PDAs which are nearly identical to the PADDs on Star Trek. You have Tablet PCs that are like the handheld computers often seen on Star Trek. The groundwork is being laid for transporters. And, now there is going to be a tricorder-like device developed!

Simply amazing!

[American Patriot]

No science fiction: Company shows off real-world Star Trek ‘tricorder’

By Jeremy A. Kaplan
Published January 07, 2014FoxNews.com

• 
  In Walter De Brouwer's right hand, the tricorder used on the TV series "Star Trek." In his left hand, a real-world version he has invented. (Jeremy Kaplan/FoxNews.com)
  
  

"Bones" would have approved.


On a mission to boldly go where no man has gone before, the crew of the USS Enterprise faced unknown dangers on strange new worlds. Fortunately, they were armed were phasers to defend themselves -- and a device called a tricorder, to quickly diagnose whatever ailed them.

'I’d always been interested in the combination of two sexy things: space and medicine.'

- Walter De Brouwer



Unfortunately, modern medical care lacks such a gizmo.


Scanadu aims to change that.


Using the same operating system that powers the Mars rover, the Scanadu Scout is a real-world version of the TV show's tricorder, a hand-held gadget about the size and shape of an Oreo cookie that can help a doctor diagnose anything from abdominal cramps to zoster (otherwise known as shingles) by scanning various vital signs, including temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, and blood pressure and sending those readings to a smartphone.


"I’d always been interested in the combination of two sexy things: space and medicine," founder and CEO Walter De Brouwer told FoxNews.com. And recognizing that modern science could actually do much of the diagnostic work that the Star Trek gizmo he was so infatuated with could, De Brouwer set out to build one.


Called the Scout, the device has existed only in labs and the mind of founder and CEO Walter De Brouwer. At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), he showed off a prototype for the first time ever. The design of the device -- a toroid, a notoriously challenging shape to manufacter -- is nothing like the clunky gray plastic box Bones used on the TV show. That product of the 60s was designed “before SJ, before Steve Jobs” he told FoxNews.com.


Just as writers couldn't have imagined today's iPhones, they didn’t envision the shiny, sleek disc that he’s working on.


It holds a variety of sensors to gauge vital signs; a near invisible hole atop the gadget has a microphone. After holding the gadget to the temple for 10 seconds, all of those health statistics are measured and transmitted to the user's smartphone, not necessarily to diagnose disease (although it could) but to help inform the holder about himself.


"Why shouldn't we own our own medical devices? Why shouldn't we give each other advice on our health?" he asked? The current American medicine cabinet holds a thermometer and likely not much more. De Brouwer envisions people carrying the very portable gadget around with them and becoming far more familiar with their day-to-day health.


"This is going to produce a new conversation with doctors," he said.


De Brouwer, a 56-year-old native of Belgium, currently lives in California. He still needs FDA approval before his device can hit market, something the company is working with the agency


toward. In March, the company plans to produce a raft of working prototypes for a field test of 10,000 people, part of the company's path to FDA approval. It will be assembled in Fremont, Calif.


“We are cutting steel, as they say.”


He plans to submit the full paperwork for FDA approval in the fall -- then it's in the hands of the FDA.


"Sapere aude," the device reads -- "know thyself." It's an apt slogan.

[American Patriot]

It's medicine Jim, but not as we know it: Scientists build Star Trek-style tricorder that scans for signs of disease

• Scanadu Scout uses the operating system Nasa uses in its Mars rover
• To take a reading, the gadget is held on a person’s temple for 10 seconds
  
• Sensors and a built-in microphone read a variety of vital health signs
• This includes temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen levels and more
• Full technical specifications have not been released, but a prototype is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas
  

By Victoria Woollaston
PUBLISHED: 06:15 EST, 8 January 2014 | UPDATED: 18:08 EST, 8 January 2014

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Imagine a world where a handheld gadget scans your body and diagnoses illnesses in seconds - reducing hospital visits and potentially saving your life.
It may sound like the work of science fiction but engineers in California have taken their lead from the Star Trek franchise and developed a real-life version of the show’s medical tricorder.
The Scanadu Scout can read a person’s temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and more, simply being held against their forehead.

Scroll down for video


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To take a reading, the Scanadu Scout is held on a person's temple for 10 seconds. Built-in sensors then establish body temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen levels and more. It works in a similar way to the medical tricorder used in Star Trek, which could scan a person's body for vital signs


WHAT IS A STAR TREK TRICORDER?

A Tricorder is a scanning device used by Starfleet personnel in the Star Trek universe.

There are two variations; a regular (engineering) tricorder and a medical tricorder.

Medical tricorders are used to wirelessly scan a patient, either in a ‘sick bay’ on a star ship or during an away mission.

The advanced scanning tool can determine a patient’s medical status and readings, and allows doctors to quickly and easily diagnose their condition without an intensive or invasion examination.


It was developed by Scanadu’s CEO Walter De Brouwer, 56, at Nasa’s Ames Research Centre in California.

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A prototype of the Scout was first unveiled in 2012 and the latest model is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas.
The portable electronic device contains a variety of different sensors, plus a microphone on the top of the gadget, that can read five vital signs.
These include body temperature, heart rate, oximetry (blood oxygen levels), ECG waves, heart rate variability and pulse wave transit time (PWTT) - the time it takes for a heartbeat to reach somewhere else in a person’s body. PWTT is related to blood pressure.
Its makers claim the device is 99 per cent accurate in less than 10 seconds.
Scanadu Scout: The real-life Star Trek tricorder






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It was developed by Scanadu's CEO Walter De Brouwer, pictured, at Nasa's Ames Research Centre. A prototype was first unveiled in 2012 and the latest model is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas. Its makers claim the device is 99 per cent accurate in less than 10 seconds



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The portable electronic device, pictured, contains a variety of sensors, plus a microphone on the top of the gadget, that can read five vital signs. These include body temperature, heart rate, oximetry (blood oxygen levels), ECG waves, heart rate variability and pulse wave transit time (PWTT)


This information is then stored on a smartphone app that patients can use to monitor their health, or can be shared with doctors for example.

The tricorder uses a micro-USB adapter that can be hooked into a USB port, and it takes less than an hour to charge the battery.
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A a tricorder prop from Insurrection, a Star Trek film. Now researchers have created a 'real' version



When it is being used a few times every day, the battery lasts for about a week, the firm says.
The gadget was expected to go on sale by the end of 2013 but the company has not announced when it will be widely available released.
It will need to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S before it can go on sale, but the company is said to be 'actively seeking this approval.'
As part of this approval process, Scanadu intends to send working protypes to 10,000 people in March.
The Scout is expected to cost around $199 (£120) and will be available to consumers.
According to De Brouwer: ‘It’s no accident that doctor visits start with checking your vital signs.
‘Scanadu Scout provides you with access to valuable data which your body provides every day. Use it to analyse, track, and trend your vitals with unprecedented simplicity.’
At last year's CES, Qualcomm set up a $10m (£6.5m) Tricorder X Prize.

The prize is on offer to whoever can create and market a Star Trek-like medical 'tricorder capable of recording 'key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases'. It also need to have a maximum weight of 5lb.



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A Tricorder is a scanning device used by Starfleet personnel in the Star Trek universe. There are two variations; a regular (engineering) tricorder, pictured here being used by Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, and a medical tricorder



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The gadget, left, was expected to go on sale by the end of 2013 but still needs to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. All the information captured by the device is stored on a smartphone app, right, that patients can use to monitor their health, or can be shared with doctors for example.