I was thinking the other day that it'd be very cool to make a tricorder...you know, model the case and clamshell-opening-style after a tricorder, with the buttons and screen and so on in the right places, but of course not a 'real' tricorder. Anyway, I was thinking you could put a small camera in it, a microphone, even infrared vision (digital cameras often can see IR, so adding a filter and an infrared LED assembly might work). Some flashmemory cards in place of isolinear chips...wireless hookup...USB port, some other kinds of jacks, maybe. Speaker, screen, etc. Anyway, anyone have any ideas on any other 'sensors' besides simple audio/video that you could conceivably put into a tricorder like this? And what kind of battery would be good? (I saw a nice lithium cell, flat and small, used for wireless surveillance cameras - I thought it would be small and powerful enough.)
Any other ideas or statements or whatever about a 'real' tricorder would be appreciated. Feel free ot burst my bubble if you think it isn't possible to build anything of the sort with off-the-shelf components, but flames are for kiddies, k?
Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :
I'm very interested in these sorts of projects, I really need to learn electronics
Have you considdered checking out some prop making sites? They may be able to help.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Dewback Wing: ASAP - they have a dedicated Forum for Tricorders.
Posted by Capped in Mike (Member # 709) on :
theres actually a sensor device made for farmers and workman that was modeled after a tricorder you know. but its like a serious thing and therefore no fun.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
Cool link, Lee!
As far as real tricorders, we'll be able to have extraordinary devices in the not-so-distant future. They'd just be a combination of things already in the works.
- Nanoprocessors, perhaps optical depending on timeframe - Extraordinary data storage - Mini-holoprojectors capable of giving one a larger screen than the little tiny one on Trek tricorders. It could even behave like a HUD. - Ultra-Wide Band sensor to see through surfaces - Vision on multiple spectrums with electronic retinae instead of cameras or CCDs - Many lab-on-a-chip applications . . . airborne chem/bio detectors, radiation detectors, DNA readers, and so on. Some might best be done with a section that is used to actually touch a person or object (perhaps needing a microneedle to extract blood or what-have-you), or else with sample placed on the proper spot, but I think I could live with that. - Onboard language translator - Various other remote-sensing applications based on laser, UWB, etc.
For more info, see the archives of www.trnmag.com Posted by Defiantly Running About (Member # 1216) on :
Now-a-days-wise, your 'ultra-wide band' jogged my memory - I recently read about 't-rays', terahertz frequency waves that can be tuned to see through all sorts of stuff. They use them in security checkpoints now, very expensive machines, but maybe in the not-too-distant future we could scale it down. I remember you can tune them to pass through flesh but not ceramics, so you can even see ceramic (or plastic, or wooden, or bone, or of course metal) knives, something metal detectors and x-rays can't necessarily do.
Posted by Defiantly Running About (Member # 1216) on :
*snaps fingers* Forgot to mention, last night I was ruminating on it, and thought of those little detachable whirly beepy thingies they sometimes use in conjunction with tricorders, passing them very close over a subject/surface - some sort of wireless sensor, evidently. Anyway, I was thinking, maybe you could use that for some kind of harmonic/acoustic sonarish kind of thing, like a scaled-up studfinder, to get things like density maps and probable composition (for geological or engineering uses), even ultrasound for medical uses.
A tricorder like this could also have some very simple meteorological functions...maybe a barometer, anemometer, thermometer, even a cellular uplink to radar maps.
Course, it could also have a GPS
Posted by Defiantly Running About (Member # 1216) on :
There's a thread I found on that link Lee posted - a guy working on an actual working tricorder of the kind we're talkin about.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Phaser and Tricorder makers seem to be two different breeds altogether, so I can't say I've much knowledge of the work the posters in that thread have done or their quality. But if you can register and want to ask questions, do so - they occasionally disable new registrations for one reason or another.
Posted by Defiantly Running About (Member # 1216) on :
I've been listing functions of tricorders on ST, and then ways that modern off-the-shelf tech could do it/something like it. Here's what I've come up with; if anyone has any other functions/modern tech, please post it.
GEO - -Detecting composition of materials - Spectrometer, ultrasound MET - -Detecting atmospheric conditions - Thermometer, humidity sensor, barometer, anemometer, cellular uplink to weather maps, lab-on-a-chip contaminant detector (even for toxins or bacteria) BIO - -Detecting lifesigns - reading human-level heat signatures -Medical scan - ultrasound, maybe detachable EKG or EEG pads in a 'medical tricorder' version
Things that dont' fit in the above, at least to me:
-Detecting magnetic fields -Radio tuner/scanner -Flashcard memory -Touchscreen -USB/IR links -CCD? Infrared CCD? -Laser pointer
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Look! Oh man, I'm definitely gonna upgrade my Newton with this!
I hope hard-hitting programs like this one aren't being canceled in that quixotic push for Mars/secret plan to shut down NASA entirely. (Note: Not an actual NASA tricorder-building program.)
It's been quite some time since I looked at a copy of the TNGTM, but is "MET" meteorology, or metallurgy?
Posted by Doctor Jonas (Member # 481) on :
METallurgy should be under GEOlogy, don't you think? So it surely is METeorology.
Posted by Defiantly Running About (Member # 1216) on :
Meteorology, yes. Especially since you wouldn't need to link to radar weather maps for metallurgy ;p
Posted by machf (Member # 1233) on :
It's for METamathics, as in the 24th century they've become unable to add or substract without the help of machines... (and they can't spell properly, either - a side effect from mankind being exposed to the Internet for all those decades)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)