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In the fictional Star Trek universe, a tricorder is a handheld device used for scanning an area, interpreting and displaying data from scans to the user, and recording information to isolinear chips.
Three primary variants of the tricorder are issued by Starfleet. The standard tricorder is a general-purpose device used primarily to scout unfamiliar areas. The medical tricorder is used by doctors to help diagnose diseases and collect bodily information about a patient; the key difference between this and a standard tricorder is a detachable hand-held high-resolution sensor array. The engineering tricorder is fine-tuned for starship engineering purposes. There are also many other lesser-used varieties of special use tricorders.
According to Dr. Julian Bashir, while medical tricorders are very good at scanning living people, they are not very good at scanning dead ones. Evidently this is the first lesson taught at Starfleet medical school.
The tricorder of the 23rd century was a heavy, black, rectangular device with a small screen and a shoulder strap. The 24th century unit is a small, gray, square model with a flip-out panel to allow for a larger screen.
The tricorder prop for the original Star Trek series was designed and built by Wah Ming Chang, one of several futuristic props he created under contract. Some of his designs are considered influences of later, real-world consumer electronics devices. (See also: Martin Cooper and the Star Trek communicator.)
A real-world device comparable to the tricorder was developed by the Canadian Vital Technologies Corporation in 1996. The device, called the TR-107 Mark 1, was able to scan EM radiation, temperature, and barometric pressure. Vital Technologies sold 10,000 units before going out of business. (The company was permitted to call this device a "tricorder" because Gene Roddenberry's contract included a clause allowing any company able to create functioning technology to use the name.) The devices were fully functional scientific instruments, and were considered by most fans to be difficult and intimidating to use.
Software exists to make hand-held devices simulate a tricorder. Examples include Jeff Jetton's Tricorder - 2.0 for the PalmPilot and the "genuine Tricorder from Elegant Solutions" for the Pocket PC.
In February, 2007, researchers from Purdue University announced the creation of a handheld device that features a miniaturized mass spectrometer, which can be used to analyze chemical substances without preparing and placing samples in a vacuum chamber.[1]