Seems like a cool idea. If there is anyone actively going for this, an idea to try is a small device in the body that sends the data to the tricorder. | |
I wonder how many entries they will get from people with no knowledge in medicine or engineering. | |
Pretty sure this was reported on the Escapist quite a while back...? Or is it just deja-vu?
I imagine very likely. The reviewers of the submissions will no doubt get a good laugh with most of them though! | |
i wonder how many nuclear power plants will get requests for uranium .. "I NEED IT FOR THE POWER SOURCE IN MY TRICORDER ! i swear homeland security officer" | |
It's a good idea as long as those 10 million doesn't mean that you're actually selling all the rights to tricorder technology to them. Because you'd earn a lot more money with patents. | |
Maybe I should switch my research focus away from catalytic splitting of water by a Photosystem II analogue (seriously nature, how do you do that so well at room temperature and pressure so effectively?!) and into medical tricorders! $10 million might be enough to buy a rig that will run Crysis. | |
Argh, one stupid line jumpos out in an otherwise decent article. Anyway, wasn't there somehting like this before? Sounds familiar. I wonder what their definition of "tricorder" is? I mean, you could build a handheld machine to tell certain importsnt things about a patient nowdays, just hardly absolutely everything. | |
This would be pretty awesome, provided it actually is possible to do. Would love to see something like this come to fruition. Also, is it just me, or does it also seem to have the same kind of vibe as Torchwood's 'Bekaran deep tissue scanner'? | |
I am almost certain they have posted this story on the escapist before...even had the same picture. >.< Slow news day? Also X prize is awesome, they are taking the smart way of technological development and not going for the holodeck first. Because once we have those humanity will never work again. | |
$10million is not much of a prize for this level of innovation. I hope Qualcomm doesn't get the rights to market and develop the device for that price (if anyone manages to pull it off). I would hope anyone who can build this realizes there's a lot more to be made. | |
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Build a Tricorder and Win $10 Million
Tech company Qualcomm has offered a generous prize for anyone who can create a working version of Star Trek's handheld medical scanner.
So, here's the scenario: You and your away team beam down to a potentially hostile planet. Ensign Redshirt takes a whiff of some local flora and promptly collapses. You order your chief medical officer to examine him, which requires transporting him back to sick bay and running a lengthy, rigorous series of tests while you stand there, twiddling your thumbs. Doesn't sound very glamorous, does it? Make no mistake: This is the future that awaits humanity if no one invents the tricorder, the miracle gadget from Star Trek that can diagnose a patient's vital stats and medical condition just by waving it over him. Thankfully, Qualcomm, a large California-based technology company, has given aspiring inventors an incentive to get moving on it. Create a real-life tricorder, and you can walk away with a cool $10 million. Sounds logical.
The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, which launched in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, aims to bring the technology of the 23rd century into the 21st. While X Prize Foundation Peter Diamandis does not believe that creating the tricorder will be simple - or even necessarily feasible - with today's tech, he thinks a big, challenging idea is the best way to revolutionize the healthcare industry. "It's not a single point solution," he explains. "The tricorder that was used by Spock and Bones inspires a vision of what healthcare will be like in the future. It will be wireless, mobile and minimally- or non-invasive. It may use digital imaging, it may be sequencing your DNA on the spot to tell you if you are allergic to something you just ate."
While much of the technology necessary for a tricorder already exists, making it handheld is much easier said than done (the contest specifies that the tricorder must weigh five pounds or less). Jeremy Nicholson, the head of the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, highlights some of the difficulties. He points out that extant devices that assess patients' internal chemistry, metabolism, and illnesses are the size of small cars, and not easily transportable. Even so, he acknowledges that such a project can be "good fun," and may get people thinking about the big picture of advancing healthcare technology.
While a modern-day tricorder is far-fetched, the X Prize Foundation has achieved remarkable results in the past. In 2004, it awarded $10 million for SpaceShipOne, the first privately developed manned spaceflight. Between spaceships and tricorders, the X Prize Foundation may end up singlehandedly bringing about a 23rd century where Star Trek is a reality. I wish all the inventors out there good luck, but I'm going to sit this one out. Why? Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an engineer!
Source: BBC News
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