Bringing Star Trek to Life

Ironclad · #1 by **Ironclad** » Jan 12, 2012 6:22 pm

I knew it! Star Trek is the future, and all the features of the show will come to pass - as prophesied by visionary Gene Roddenberry.
We have tablet PCs, as used on TNG.
The flip communicator, TOS, is old hat.
The warp bubble has been calculated (we just can't make one yet).
The Klingons are here! (well, nearly)

Now The Qualcomm Tricorder (X Prize), at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), has offered a ten million dollar prize to whoever can create a Star Trek-like medical "tricorder".

:yay:

The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize has challenged researchers to build a tool capable of capturing "key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases".

It needs to be light enough for would-be Dr McCoys to carry - a maximum weight of 5lb (2.2kg).

According to the official Star Trek technical manual, a tricorder is a portable "sensing, computing and data communications device".

HughMcB · #2 by **HughMcB** » Jan 12, 2012 6:40 pm

Awesome, I hope that incentive is enough.

twistor59 · #3 by **twistor59** » Jan 12, 2012 7:24 pm

And nobody's working on building an Uhura ? :scratch:

DavidMcC · #4 by **DavidMcC** » Feb 05, 2012 2:13 pm

Somehow, Ironclad, I don't think so. If, by "warp bubbles", you mean worm-holes in space, then think again. It has been calculated that it would require an anti-matter bomb with the mass of Jupiter to create a worm-hole big enough to fit a starship through, and then there would be no guarantee that anything would happen, other than the destruction of the solar system! Any takers? Travelling to other star systems and beaming down to the surface of a planet is also pure fantasy, whatever Kaku (famous for saying misleading things to wow his naive audience) may say on his TV shows.
Also, what does "almost here" mean?

AlohaChris · #5 by **AlohaChris** » Feb 05, 2012 2:22 pm

Well, were not getting anywhere too fast, with the medical tricorder.

A new portable CT scanner called the "O Arm" was recently developed. While it is a step forwards, it ain't exactly that 'portable':

DavidMcC · #6 by **DavidMcC** » Feb 05, 2012 2:24 pm

Quite so, AlohaChris. Perhaps this thread belongs to a different forum. Is there one for sci-fi?

cavarka9 · #7 by **cavarka9** » Feb 05, 2012 2:26 pm

they are going to use tasers which should be better i guess

MacIver · #8 by **MacIver** » Feb 05, 2012 2:29 pm

Something that I always wondered.... what are "lifesigns"?

Are they heartbeats? Bioelectrical fields? Thermal signatures?

AlohaChris · #9 by **AlohaChris** » Feb 05, 2012 2:29 pm

A medical tricorder woud need to contain the following to be "Star Trek" level:

All vital signs: HR, BP, RR, Temperature.
All monitoring: EKG, ABP tracing, PAP's (with all derived parameters), CCO, Pulse oximetry, ETCO2 and ABG's.
Scanning: Ultasound, Doppler, X-Ray, CT & MRI.

It would need to accomplish all this non-invasively & wirelessly.

AlohaChris · **#10** by **AlohaChris** » Feb 05, 2012 2:31 pm

cavarka9 wrote:they are going to use tasers which should be better i guess

Hmm, a defibrillator gun? That would be cool. I could save your life from across the room. :lol:

cavarka9 · **#11** by **cavarka9** » Feb 05, 2012 2:34 pm

AlohaChris wrote:
cavarka9 wrote:they are going to use tasers which should be better i guess

Hmm, a defibrillator gun? That would be cool. I could save your life from across the room.

that might be possible, but T-rays

Pulsar · **#12** by **Pulsar** » Feb 05, 2012 2:46 pm

DavidMcC wrote:Somehow, Ironclad, I don't think so. If, by "warp bubbles", you mean worm-holes in space, then think again. It has been calculated that it would require an anti-matter bomb with the mass of Jupiter to create a worm-hole big enough to fit a starship through, and then there would be no guarantee that anything would happen, other than the destruction of the solar system! Any takers? Travelling to other star systems and beaming down to the surface of a planet is also pure fantasy, whatever Kaku (famous for saying misleading things to wow his naive audience) may say on his TV shows.

There's another (very) speculative idea, called an Alcubierre drive, which is equally unrealistic.
Agreed on Kaku, I can't stand his SF nonsense.

DavidMcC · **#13** by **DavidMcC** » Feb 05, 2012 3:02 pm

AlohaChris wrote:
cavarka9 wrote:they are going to use tasers which should be better i guess

Hmm, a defibrillator gun? That would be cool. I could save your life from across the room.

You'd need one if you'd just been re-constituted!

Mike_L · **#14** by **Mike_L** » Feb 05, 2012 3:14 pm

DavidMcC · **#15** by **DavidMcC** » Feb 07, 2012 3:45 pm

Mike, it suddenly struck me that your wordless post might have been trying to imply that Star Trek had "thought of that". There is, however, a big difference between a "regretable tragedy" implied by that episode and the inevitable consequence that I am suggesting.

A further issue, avoided by Kaku, is that there is no way to convert a body (even of a single celled organism) from atoms to perfectly collimated radiation, then back again to atoms at some highly remote location. This is probably the most damning aspect of "transporter beams". All Kaku has to offer on the subject is that a lot of information has to be stored. This is only of possible use if you want to make a copy of the original, not use it.

Ironclad · **#16** by **Ironclad** » Feb 07, 2012 4:40 pm

FFS, David.. here, have a fun-transplant. I have a spare.

twistor59 · **#17** by **twistor59** » Feb 07, 2012 4:44 pm

Ironclad wrote:
The Klingons are here!

That's what toilet paper was invented for.

DavidMcC · **#18** by **DavidMcC** » Feb 07, 2012 6:42 pm

Sorry, twistor, but people who take Star Trek seriously get my goat, especially since Kaku's TV series, and I thought some people were taking it seriously, just for a moment, there!