The Qualcomm X-Prize Tricorder Design Competition

Spock with Tricorder

Speaking of Star Trek technology... Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation is probably best-known for the Ansari X-Prize space competition, which offered a $10million prize for the first non-governmental entity to put a man in space. (That competition was won by Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites with SpaceShipOne in 2004.) Now he has teamed up with Qualcomm, the cellphone tech company, on a new $10million X-Prize design competition for a medical diagnosis device that will function something like Dr. McCoy's "Tricorder" scanner. Here's how they describe it:

"Imagine a portable, wireless device in the palm of your hand that monitors and diagnoses your health conditions. That’s the technology envisioned by this competition, and it will allow unprecedented access to personal health metrics. The end result: Radical innovation in healthcare that will give individuals far greater choices in when, where, and how they receive care."

An overview of the competition --- the general concept of the device,  and the need for such a device --- are given here.

The X Prize Foundation has started a Tricorder Design Competition blog where you can follow news and progress of the competition as it develops.