X Prize seeks Star Trek-style tricorder
JAN 12, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025816
BBC : The latest X Prize, worth $10 million and funded by telecoms manufacturer Qualcomm, challenges inventors to develop a portable diagnostic tool similar to that used in the science fiction TV series Star Trek. Wireless and noninvasive, the handheld device, called a tricorder, was used by the show’s doctor to diagnose illness by simply scanning a patient’s body. X Prizes are monetary awards given to the first to achieve a specific goal. Although medical devices that detect chemical signs of illness already exist, the challenge will be to bring all the technologies needed together into one tricorder-sized piece of equipment, according to Jeremy Nicholson, head of the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London. “I don’t think there’ll be many people getting that prize in the near future,” he said.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
