Wireless company Qualcomm has joined forces with the X-Prize Foundation to sponsor an X-Prize to create the first functional tricorder.
The tricorder, for the non-geek reader of ReadWriteWeb (is there such at thing?) is the handheld computer used by medical professionals and science officers to do non-invasive scanning on the Star Trek television shows. The prize will focus on the medical applications of this fictional device.
According to the official announcement, the prize will be awarded to whoever can be first to “develop a mobile solution that can diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians.” The competition will open early in the coming year.
The X-Prize Foundation has become renowned for inspiring breakthroughs that make scfi a reality while solving real-world problems. X-Prizes have so far been awarded for the first “private, suborbital space flight;” for the first car to exceed 100 miles per gallon and for advances in advanced rocketry.
Other active prizes include one for sending a functional robot to the moon and another for a next-generation oil cleanup technology.
TOS tricorder photo by Mike Seyfang, TNG tricorder photo by Bobbie Johnson | other sources: Forbes
