Slashdot Mirror
Canadian Man Releases Open Source Star Trek Tricorder
New submitter upontheturtlesback writes "Another example of Star Trek technology becoming a reality. In light of the recent Tricorder X-Prize announcement, Dr. Peter Jansen has openly released the designs for a series of Science Tricorders that he developed while a graduate student at McMaster University. The Science Tricorders are capable of sensing a variety of atmospheric, electromagnetic, and spatial phenomena. Where the Science Tricorder Mark 1 is a relatively easy-to-build proof of concept, the Science Tricorder Mark 2 runs Linux and resembles a cross between a Nintendo DS and scientific instrument with dual OLED touch displays. An exciting video shows them in action, and describes the project goal of creating general scientific tools for learning about and visualizing the world, as well as their importance for science education by helping kids understand abstract concepts like magnetism or polarization visually. The hardware schematics, board layouts, and firmware source are freely available on the Tricorder project website under various open licenses."
It's finally here but I can't wait until the fourcorder!
For instance, I couldn't get the neutrino beam working and while scanning for life forms it identified my cat as silicone based! Neat, but needs some work.
Call me when there's a functional Voight-Kampff machine.
And a nexus-6 pleasure model to test it on.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
We'll see.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Memory Alpha (the Star Trek wiki) says
The first "real-world" tricorder was developed by a Canadian company called the Vital Technologies Corporation in 1996. The scanner was called the TR-107 Mark 1; Vital Technologies sold 10,000 of them before going out of business in 1997. The TR-107 could scan EM radiation, temperature, and barometric pressure.
The TR-107 is properly referred to as a true "tricorder" due to a clause in Gene Roddenberry's contracts with Desilu/Paramount dating back to the time of the Original Series. The clause specified that if any company could find a way to make one of the fictional devices actually work, then they would have the right to use the name.
[I want to note the inner quote isn't sourced. Being fueled by the infinite energy and eye for minutiae of Star Trek fans, Memory Alpha is usually very reliable.]
This is the DIY, open source version. Kinda clunky, but open and accessible. He's obviously a proponent of accessible education, a welcome sentiment.
The Apple/Nokia/Samsung version will be flip-phone configuration, no user serviceable or accessible parts, locked down and impossible to open up without destroying. It will feature multiple wireless protocols, wireless probes and accessories. It will not be upgradeable, and will be created as a designed obsolescence, throw away device. While you use it to explore the world around you, it will be gathering all your data to explore and categorize you.
It will also be backed by a war chest of patents used to deny the populace or small businesses from creating their own cheap, open, accessible versions.
Scoff all you like, but enjoy this handiwork while you still can. Or at least applaud.
Too bad CBS will likely kill this the same way they killed the free Android tricorder. They claim to own the LCARS interface.
Having checked out the project's page, it doesn't use LCARS, so that won't happen.
You didn't look at the page very much.
http://www.tricorderproject.org/tricorder-mark1.html
Clearly that is using the LCARS interface.
Medical health professionals are already reporting that many patients are able to do self diagnosis with the help of 'net research. "They come to us for confirmation of what they've already figured out."
Given the lack of access to quality health care in even 1st world societies, imagine the empowerment to diagnose biomedical ailments at the molecular level from commonly available handheld devices at home. http://www.nano.org.uk/news/1705
The ability to do real-time PCR(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction), immunoassays to detect bacteria, viruses and cancers based on antigen-antibody reactions, dielectrophoresis, and other techniques would have an immense impact on general human health and treatment in the hands of qualified health professionals and citizens.
Doctors working in third world and inaccessible regions would have an incalculable leg up, not having to wait for non-existent sample testing.
I don't see this as a project for basement tinkerers, but the technology is coming along. Health care costs are threating to overwhelm world economies as populations burgeon and life expectancies increase.
I'll leave it to the other cynics to burst this bubble. I'd like to think there are still some optimistic dreamers out there. Let's hear some feedback from some of those, please.