The Tricorder From ‘Star Trek’ Is Real, And A Working Prototype Debuted At SXSW

Most associate the X Prize Foundation with the coveted private space race led by SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. Yet, the X Prize also features many other multi-million dollar opportunities, including the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize. One of the Star Trek-inspired contest’s entries debuted at South by Southwest, and it kind of looks amazing.

Okay, it looks amazing. The four-part combination of an ear and neck piece, base station, diagnostic stick, and scanning wand is one of the X Prize finalists for the tricorder competition. Cloud DX President and CEO Robert Kaul demonstrated the components to IEEE Spectrum and the crowd at his his SXSW talk.

The ear and neck piece — dubbed Vitali — is already on sale to consumers as a fitness tracker. It’s a smart move by the company, but an even smarter one would be to make the diagnostic stick and scanning wand available for sale. Seriously, imagine brandishing one or both of those in tandem with an accompanying app on your phone. Your pets would hate you.

For more, check out this promotional video from Cloud DX about its tricorder prototype:

Via IEEE Spectrum

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