Slashdot Mirror
Purdue Unveils a Tricorder
aeoneal writes "According to Science Daily, mass spectrometry is no longer limited to what can be taken to the lab. Purdue researchers have created a device they liken to a tricorder, a handy 20-lb. device that combines mass spectrometry with DESI (desorption electrospray ionization), allowing chemical composition to be determined outside of a vacuum chamber. Purdue suggests this could be useful for everything from detecting explosive substances or cancer to predicting disease. Researcher R. Graham Cooks says, 'We like to compare it to the tricorder because it is truly a hand-held instrument that yields information about the precise chemical composition of samples in a matter of minutes without harming the samples.'"
a handy 20-lb. device
"He's dead Jim."
"Well, I dropped the tricorder on his head."
In 1992 Harry Harrison (of SF fame) and Marvin Minsky (of AI fame) collaborated on The turing option, trying to merge Minsky's ideas about how an artificial mind could work with a SF story. Wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but there was an astonishing twist: In the book a brilliant scientist creates the first true AI and embeds it into a sort of fractal robot, whose arms are split into more arms like branches on a tree, ending with thousands of autonomous arms with their own vision each. And the first place this system is used (after being stolen): in agriculture, picking up bugs.
So I will predict the first mass use of Purdue's Tricorder: Japanese toilets!!!. It can already recognize "biomarkers" in urine, so someone will build a cheap version of it into a toilet and every time you take a dump it will tell you what you should not have been eating, how sick you will be tomorrow and that if you continue that way your insurance won't cover your therapy. It will save the health systems billions.
.Oh, and I'm serious about the toilet part.
memomo: free web based language trainer DE-EN-ES-FR-IT
The research team has used the device to ... identify cocaine on $50 bills in less than 1 second.
REAL playas use Benjamins to snort blow!
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
a handy 20-lb. device
Must be the ST:TOS version. At 20 lb, I would imagine that a shoulder strap is mandatory wear. Thanks, but I'll wait until the ST:TNG version hits.
Remember what calculators and computers looked like 20 years ago? In a couple of decades we'll be looking at these pictures and laughing ourselves silly at the description 'portable'.
Evil will always win, because Good is DUMB
Not to say it wasn't convent to have a computer with a handle.
That being said, I wonder how hard it would be to miniaturize this kind of scanning technology. There is a real need for smaller computers, but is there a real need for mass-produced mass spectrometers?
of the robot mentioned a while back that thinks humans taste like bacon. Lets see what this thing thinks your hand is.
the boston police should be happy about this
Here is a short blurb about how DESI works. It is something worth checking out and then searching Google for since it is the key to how this device works.
I feel like death on a soda cracker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog#Smell
Dogs can do most of the things this spectrometer is touted for. Dogs can smell explosives and they can detect cancer. They can even tell when people are going to have a seizure in time to provide warning. I just hate the thought of the beagle at the airport becoming unemployed because of this new device.
and it detects
Interestingly, the "toilet tricorder" was shown in the 2005 movie "The Island" starring Ewan McGregor. The toilet detected too much salt/nitrates in the urine and restricted him from eating bacon.
Data: Geordi, the Galorndon core is unstable. We need to beam you up to the Enterprise immediately.
Geordi: Hold on Data. I seem to be picking be picking residual biophotonic signatures on my tricorder... wait, it's still scanning. Let me get back to you in a few minutes.
After carrying one of those around all day with a shoulder strap you'd welcome a Vulcan nerve pinch to ease the pain.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
This does indeed have enormous potential. But - how many million does it cost?
The government can't save you.
Spock: It looks like a toaster Jim.
Jim: Spock...what's a toaster?
Spock: It was a early 21st century tool for draining primitive power sources.
Jim: Why would they need such a tool?
Spock: The existence of such a tool defies logic Jim.
Dr. McCoy: YOU VILE EARTH BASHING VULCAN. Everything that was made by pre-space fairing human defies logic.
Dr. McCoy: I was used to prepare food, YOU POINTY-EARED AUTOMATON.
Jim: Oh look...toast
I'm not in this field (mathematician, no fancy equipment required) but I am curious, why do these things have to be so large in the first place. Anyone in the know point me to a good explanation of how these work? My curiosity is piqued. A quick google search didn't return much for me.
The StarTrek Days will come when I can finally transfer auxiliary power to the shields in my Jetta....
Hmmm...they must have stolen it from Rocheworld.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
So, this is just a DESI and mass spec. in a 20 lb package.
That's no sort of tricorder. That's a monocorder. A tricorder measures THREE things, hence TRI.
Damn lying hoosiers.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
It's a prototype. I'm guessing the first production model will be 10 pounds and then it'll get smaller at the same rate as everything else. Much smaller in 5 years, a lot fucking smaller within 10.
Anyone remember the brick cell phones?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df /Body_painting.JPG
While it is a new design, and has different features, this is in fact not the first tricorder that has been made. http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/0996September/Sparky/tr icorder.html talks about the very first "tricorder," but it doesn't look like it was very successful. Maybe Purdue's device will stick around longer.
By the way, something that is very interesting to note is that Gene Roddenberry allows anyone who creates devices like the ones in Star Trek (and presumably its variations) can use the names used in the show. Get to work all you Trekkie engineers!
Wouldn't that be a Bi-corder rather than a Tri-corder?
I'm holding out for the next generation.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
In a couple of decades we'll be looking at these pictures and laughing ourselves silly at the description 'portable'.
Did you see that thing??? I'm ALREADY laughing myself silly when they say that thing is portable. I must be very ahead of the times...
Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?
While it is a new design, and has different features, this is in fact not the first tricorder that has been made.
http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/0996September/Sparky/tr icorder.html talks about the very first "tricorder," but it doesn't look like it was very successful. Maybe Purdue's device will stick around longer.
By the way, something that is very interesting to note is that Gene Roddenberry allows anyone who creates devices like the ones in Star Trek (and presumably its variations) can use the names used in the show. Get to work all you Trekkie engineers!
In the 29th century, it'll be worn on your wrist.
In the 33rd century, it'll be an implant...
Bear with me, this could seem a little longwinded - and verging on the conspiricy theory side
As we know the beagle 2 mars mission tragically dissappeared on entry into the martian atmosphere. This shouldnt really come as any surprise to anyone in the UK who watch the televised lead up to the launch and landing as they will remember the breaking airbags never worked. Yes, when tested inside a low atmosphere chamber (wiithout even making contact with a surface - less at speed) they popped - boom - poof.
The only reason why I think they launched the probe, neihg - given it any funding, was the one funky peice of equiptment it had on it. A pocket sized Mass Spectrometer. The sooner they write off the beagle project the sooner they could commertialise their research.
I wonder if the above device has anything to do with a ceartain small hound. Meh, random speculation
So I will predict the first mass use of Purdue's Tricorder: Japanese toilets!!!. It can already recognize "biomarkers" in urine, so someone will build a cheap version of it into a toilet and every time you take a dump it will tell you what you should not have been eating, how sick you will be tomorrow and that if you continue that way your insurance won't cover your therapy. It will save the health systems billions.
The first use will be counterterrorism/counterinsurgency, the second law enforcement. In the law enforcement context they will analyze the air around you when they stop you to chat, pull you over, etc. The molecules leaving your body/clothing/car will enter the public domain atmosphere and be fair game for analysis. It think there is precedent from having dogs sniff the exterior of a car at a border crossing, the pot smell entered the public domain, the trained dog signaled, instant probably cause for a search. Similar justifications will be safety related. "I need to interview you, but first for your safety and mine, I need to scan you."
Tubby? No wonder girls are putting their finger down their throats. Looks healthy to me.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Can it detect suspicious tachyon emissions coming out of my PC ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
She's not naked for fuck sakes
It's no surprise to me that such a scanning device is developed. And like any new technology, it is always just the beginning.
After all, We have the quantum computer, beginning to master quantum entanglement for teleportation, tractor beam, and last but not least, Geordi's visor to allow blind people to see.
What we need next is a energy based weapon and energy shield.
\
Probably not, since they're both gimmicky frauds.
Easy - they applied to the DEA for a research permit and were certified to buy small amounts from qualified vendors.
Yes, I'm serious. If you are a properly certified research/development facility, and you get an approved permit, you can buy or be loaned all manner of things not available on the 'open' market. This includes cocaine, meth, plutonium - and moon rocks. (And yes, part of being certified is having a tracking and accounting system in place for the material, and there limits as to how much you can obtain.)
Then there's some information I need to retrieve from my wife...
It's not a precise quote, but the best I can do right now. I wonder what the results of field research on the Mini 10 will be?
Shifty Alien: This is Z Ray.
Fry: Is it like an X Ray?
Shifty Alien: Yes, but is better, is Z.
[Bender aims Z Ray at Fry's pants]
Fry: Ow, my sperm!
[Bender pushes button again]
Fry: Well, it didn't hurt that time.
Am I seriously the first to wonder how many people from India worked on this project?
This is the instrument that is so needed. Wow! Excellent. Seriously, if it can tell organic molecules apart, volatiles, and the alkali metals, not just the iron oxides that MER A and B can detect, this would be exactly what the next generation rover needs!
..but when will fashion catch up w/ Star Trek? It's not enough that Trekkers wear Star Trek uniforms in public. We cannot rest until they sport those giant Guinan hats that Whoopie so boldly wore in the TNG episodes.
We know he gets killed first, especially if he is black.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
*sigh*
Trying to replicate trek tech is a complete waste of human resources until we find/manufacture dilithium crystals. Why the heck is NASA wasting my tax money on shuttle replacement parts?!? It's all about dilithium!
http://www.jerrykatz.cc/?p=113
No, I think the first poster was right, Japanese toilet technology (or similar "trivial" commercial product) will eventually be spun off being seen as reliable enough to see it used further afield. Yes, no doubt the FBI etc may have one in their labs, but they will take years to appraise it's use and wont trust it versus the lab with its scientific controls.
The most likely sceanario will see use in food techhnology, checking for food contaminants making foods last longer and are safer that come off an aseemby line - checking for the deadly ingredient in Fugu perhaps!!!
The problem with the "trivial" commercial products will be the price tag. For law enforcement the years of appraisal are not really necessary. The application would not be scientific data that meets courtroom evidenciary standards, it would merely be a sufficiently reliable indication to meet probably cause and allow searches and the collection of the "real" evidence. Think of getting your shoes swabbed at an airport. A positive indicator could not convict you in court, but it will get you a visit to private room where you and your baggage are subject to further inspection. Similarly, the military does not need absolute certainty for all operations. There's a bomb factory in a neighborhood, scanning could help develop a list of who and where to visit first, as opposed to cordoning off the neighborhood and going door to door. Yeah, medical application will be right up there with military and law enforcement.
there's been a fun emulator for Palm for years:
Jeff Jetton's Tricorder Palm site
the colour one runs fine on my Palm T3 despite the program being written for pre Arm processors
If you replace the diffusion vacuum pump and rotary backing pump with a modern turbomolecular pump, then you don't have the warm-up time or the noise. If you have a small aperture, and pump the thing hard enough, then a 25KeV beam will travel a few mm in air. Use a magnetic field to turn the beam just before the aperture and the air going through the aperture won't roar straight up the electron optics. People have viewed living cells under electron microscopes so having a high vacuum electron optics with a small open end is possible. A bit of air can also avoid the charging problems, which is whjy SEM specimens are usually coated in gold first.
If you can sweep an electron beam over the surface you can get the SEM view of it, but you can also use the electron beam to evaporate and ionize material, which can then go into a mass spectrometer. You can look for X-rays, electron diffraction, and so forth. There's lots of stuff you can stick onto a SEM that could probably be minaturized down to the cassette player size of the Tricorder.
It's not 'life form readings at 500 meters' but it's a start.
This cannot be a tricorder, from what I understand, if it were then it would be able to use triangulation to identify molecules at many points (depends on resolution) in front (or around) the device.
For example a muffin, it would be able to scan the entire muffin and tell you the average percentage of sugar and whether there were parts of the muffin with more or less sugar.
This could be done without moving the muffin around nor having to break it up into a million pieces.
The triangulation could be done by either having more than one sensor in the device or by moving the device around.
So, tricorder my ass. No really, if it were a real tricorder they'd be able to see what I ate.
But really this type of device could make a company extremely rich if they would sell one that would identify sugar content, nuts, fatty acids, cholesterol, chemicals that are known to be used in food products for those who want to "stay green" and all those other "new trend" ingredients that are marketed to us each day.
So yes, someone else said monocorder and this seems like the more appropriate name.
AC because I'm a lazy ass who lost his pw.
30 years ago, a simple +-*/ calculator was easily twice the size of today's standard calculators. While today's calculators could be made smaller, in general it's cheaper and UI design issues that stabilize the size. After all, using 50+ keys on a calculator requires a certain size in design, and ruggedness requires a certain thickness unless you start going with more exotic (expensive) materials. After all - would you (be able to) use a scientific calculator the size of a postage stamp?
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
for a few years now. Thermo Scientific http://www.niton.com/ has a line of handheld, portable X-Ray Fluorescence analyzers for a few years now. XRF performs elemental analysis, so it's not much good on pharmaceuticals or organics, but works great for metals, alloys, and trace element detection. They're widely used to find lead-based paint in homes, for example. Plus, they kind-of look like a Phaser.
You can't have a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent.
If this thing is handy...
How big are your hands?
Get your Unix fortune now!
I have found the rapid proliferation of this story across the web really funny. This same lab and this same device have been featured several times on PhysOrg but the moment the word "tricorder" is thrown out there it gets instant net popularity!
My buddy who works in the lab responds and is available to answer questions on his website. The one that has been killing me is the "why does it have to be so big" question. For the love of G-D they condensed a gigantic mass spec into the size of a PC case. These things can weigh hundreds of pounds and now they are even working no an 11 lb version.
Exactly right... in the lab a lot of the funding already comes from DHS and DARPA
Yes, no doubt the FBI etc may have one in their labs, but they will take years to appraise it's use and wont trust it versus the lab with its scientific controls.
Because we all know how well the reliability of say, polygraphs or fingerprint analysis has been tested. People in general put far too much faith in these technological methods. A thin veneer of science and we forget all about false positives.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
This has thousands of very interesting implications. Most people right now are focused on the portability, but it doesn't actually need to be portable to be very useful. Imagine walking into a small chamber in a hospital. The air is pumped out, some sterile air is pumped in, and your body exudes whatever chemicals are in your system. You step out and the tech gets a handout of everything in you, from perscriprion drugs, illegal drugs, and whatever bacteria and viruses are infesting you. Due to the advent of these dogs that can actually sniff out some forms of cancer, it stands to reason these gas spectrometer-like devices should be able to as well. Suddenly you can have damn near a complete check up, including a lot of blood work, in maybe a few seconds time. That, coupled with maybe an RFID tag that displays a list of allergies or even an ID to a hospital database that would list your medical history, all within moments of walking in the door. Of course, this goes way beyond that. You know that entranceway at bank's doors? Who's to say they couldn't have these guys constantly sniffing for gunpowder? Even with manufactured and cleaned bullets in a clean gun I'd bet the proverbial dollars to doughnuts a uzi packed with 30 rounds would put off enough residue to set off a few alarms in a remote area which can then tap into the security system and take a look around. The list goes on and on. Police stations everywhere could have a few, one for evidence, one for people. Say you got a guy who is acting crazy as hell and you suspect he's on PCP? Throw him in the chamber and maybe find out he's clean except for a bad reaction with some prescription medication. You get the idea. Of course, I am sure the uses for it could be much more sinister as well, but I'd guess that within 10-20 years we'll see similar things everywhere.
That, and the mass spec. doesn't need to be fed, trained, and cleaned up after.
Yes, but the cops/feds/etc who use it will. For those few of you who've never had the pleasure *cough* of attending an organic chemistry class, permit me to point out that the output of a mass spec is not the easiest thing to read. A limited understanding of organic functional groups is required. This means that you either train your operators to read the output themselves (unlikely), the operator wirelessly transmits the data back to some (presumably) competent and overworked analyst, or a piece of software does the interpretation based on a pre-stored set of known compounds. Each of these methods has strengths and weaknesses, but it is unlikely that this portable device will be so "idiot proof" that any beat cop can use it in the near future. So keep your tinfoil hats on, but you can probably forgo the activated charcoal liners ---- for now.
He who would be a man, must be a nonconformist. -- Emerson
a handy 20-lb. device
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Just make sure you arent wearing a red shirt while using the device.
However, that is completely contradictory to the 4th Amendment Right protecting us against Search & Seizure. Or, is it that when we are pulled over for a traffic violation, we are immediately suspects and that right is waived?
Sorry man... the Internet pooped on me.
Tell you what, you bring me all your "tubby" chicks, hell, much thinner than that and I put them in the "anorexic or sickly" cateogry.
Kirk: Looks like a class M planet, what've we got Mr. Spock?
Spock: I'm picking up oxygen, nitrogen, basic plant life... and your prostate is the size of a grapefruit!
Kirk: Put that thing away!
Spock: My apologies captain. I'll try to keep my observations more focused.
Kirk: Thank you. Now, any life forms?
Spock: Mr. Sulu has crabs.
Mayor: Qui bono?
Sergeant: Qui gives a shit?
Nope, not unless the Supreme Court is overthrown. They ruled several years ago in a case involving the police use of FLIR to spy on the houses of suspected pot growers, that the use of remote sensing equipment without a warrant is a violation of the "Unwarranted Search" clause of the Bill of Rights. The cops tried to use the "plain sight" exception, but since we don't see in infrared, the court wasn't having any of it. I think the tricorder would fall under this ruling. Using a tricorder without the express permission of the suspect would be a similar violation.
Though this does bring up an inconsistency. As you pointed out, US law does allow for the use of dogs to detect drugs. Or does the officer have to get permission to use the dog? Not having smuggled drugs, this is an area I'm woefully ignorant in.
I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.
In the 33rd century, it'll be an implant... WTF!? Eight centuries to reduce a 20-lb table-top unit to wristwatch-size? Another four centuries after that for implants?
Dude: The 19th Century wants its rate of technological progress back.
Try this:
In the 2010's, it'll be carried on a shoulder strap.
In the '20s, it'll be worn on your wrist.
In the '30s, it'll be an implant.
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
SWM seeks new sig for a brief fling