THE X PRIZE foundation, a non-profit foundation promoting technology, has offered a $10m prize to anyone who can make Star Trek’s medical “tricorder” diagnostic machine a reality.
The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize was announced in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. The X Prize Foundation’s Chairman Peter Diamandis said: “I’m probably the first guy who’s here in Vegas who would be happy to lose $10m.”
The challenge laid down is to produce a device capable of reading “key health metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases” while being completely portable, with a maximum weight of 2.2kg.
On the sci-fi TV series the tricorder was an all-purpose handheld sensor and scanner used by the spaceship’s doctors such as Leonard “Bones” McCoy.
Image from Culture Culte