Build a Tricorder and Win $10 Million
Tech company Qualcomm has offered a generous prize for anyone who can create a working version of Star Trek's handheld medical scanner.
So, here's the scenario: You and your away team beam down to a potentially hostile planet. Sounds logical [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedShirt].
The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, which launched in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, aims to bring the technology of the 23rd century into the 21st. While X Prize Foundation Peter Diamandis does not believe that creating the tricorder will be simple - or even necessarily feasible - with today's tech, he thinks a big, challenging idea is the best way to revolutionize the healthcare industry. "It's not a single point solution," he explains. "The tricorder that was used by Spock and Bones inspires a vision of what healthcare will be like in the future. It will be wireless, mobile and minimally- or non-invasive. It may use digital imaging, it may be sequencing your DNA on the spot to tell you if you are allergic to something you just ate."
While much of the technology necessary for a tricorder already exists, making it handheld is much easier said than done (the contest specifies that the tricorder must weigh five pounds or less). Jeremy Nicholson, the head of the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, highlights some of the difficulties. He points out that extant devices that assess patients' internal chemistry, metabolism, and illnesses are the size of small cars, and not easily transportable. Even so, he acknowledges that such a project can be "good fun," and may get people thinking about the big picture of advancing healthcare technology.
While a modern-day tricorder is far-fetched, the X Prize Foundation has achieved remarkable results in the past. In 2004, it awarded $10 million for Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an engineer! [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne]
Source: BBC News [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16518171]
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Tech company Qualcomm has offered a generous prize for anyone who can create a working version of Star Trek's handheld medical scanner.
So, here's the scenario: You and your away team beam down to a potentially hostile planet. Sounds logical [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedShirt].
The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, which launched in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, aims to bring the technology of the 23rd century into the 21st. While X Prize Foundation Peter Diamandis does not believe that creating the tricorder will be simple - or even necessarily feasible - with today's tech, he thinks a big, challenging idea is the best way to revolutionize the healthcare industry. "It's not a single point solution," he explains. "The tricorder that was used by Spock and Bones inspires a vision of what healthcare will be like in the future. It will be wireless, mobile and minimally- or non-invasive. It may use digital imaging, it may be sequencing your DNA on the spot to tell you if you are allergic to something you just ate."
While much of the technology necessary for a tricorder already exists, making it handheld is much easier said than done (the contest specifies that the tricorder must weigh five pounds or less). Jeremy Nicholson, the head of the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, highlights some of the difficulties. He points out that extant devices that assess patients' internal chemistry, metabolism, and illnesses are the size of small cars, and not easily transportable. Even so, he acknowledges that such a project can be "good fun," and may get people thinking about the big picture of advancing healthcare technology.
While a modern-day tricorder is far-fetched, the X Prize Foundation has achieved remarkable results in the past. In 2004, it awarded $10 million for Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an engineer! [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne]
Source: BBC News [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16518171]
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