[PODCAST] 303 – HEY COMPUTER… | PRIORITY ONE PODCAST: A STAR TREK NEWS SHOW

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  tylermaxwell Member Posts: 184 Arc User

  February 2017

  If the next Google Pixel or iPhone had an integrated tricorder, would it be a deal breaker for you? Is this something you want to see on every smartphone designed & developed?
  Not really, 'cuz I'd never remember or bother to use it. I had a tricorder app on a smartphone at one point. Tapping my fake tricorder buttons while pretending to relay crucial plot info to Captain Picard? Endearing. Having to hold and point my tricorder at all the food and other products I'm thinking of buying on my grocery runs? Annoying.
  
  What I'd go for is a setup that calculates all that info for me automatically, without extra fuss for me OR having to extend Trek LARPing to the supermarket. Something like a smart fridge (I suppose it's sorta like a replicator) that tabulates the nutritional value of everything inside, then presents it to me in an easy-to-use format. Something like a 'health tricorder' though, I betcha that would only find use among the usual fitness enthusiasts.
  
  Could Star Trek benefit from writers like Gary Witta, who have written successful films like Rogue One?
  Trek could always use more good writers (that's where all the best episodes come from), so sure.

  [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

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  wombat140 Member Posts: 971 Arc User

  February 2017 edited February 2017

  If the next Google Pixel or iPhone had an integrated tricorder, would it be a deal breaker for you? Is this something you want to see on every smartphone designed & developed?
  The idea of using it to calculate the nutritional content of food seems a little pointless, since most products with labels have that information on their labels anyway.
  
  I can see how devices like this could be hugely useful (and fun!) for scientists in some situations, though, amateur scientists included. I've seen something like this on a TV documentary a while ago; that one, calibrated to read off the amount of various metallic elements in a surface, again by spectrometry, and was being used to see whether a painting was genuine or not by comparing the composition of the paint to other works by the same artist.
  
  How much can this one do? I'd be interested to know. For instance, is it capable of testing for the concentration of any specific compound (like, for instance, the Vitamin C content of a food), or only basic, large-scale things like the amount of fats or sugars? If there was a device that could scan an object (at least, any somewhat translucent object) for any given compound, given the necessary data about its spectrum, then imagine how useful that would be in medical testing. I remember reading a while back about some compound - unfortunately I can't remember the name - connected to athletic performance, and they'd developed a gadget that could measure the level in the bloodstream just by clipping the gadget onto your finger. Again, it worked by shining a light through and analysing the light spectrum - no blood involved. The idea was to be able to measure the level repeatedly throughout the day and work out something or other from that, I forget what. Is this being used for insulin monitoring yet? If not, why not?

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