Tricorder

EE Times: Star Trek’s ‘tricorder’ realized

The 20-pound, battery-powered unit combines a mass spectrometer with a desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) source.

This device, which doesn’t have a cute name yet, is a general purpose sniffer that can take samples from the air and identify just about any substance known to man. The 300+ pound explosive detectors in use now require that samples be placed in the unit, and they are looking for just a few specific, common substances.

Considering that my PDA is much smaller than the electronic tablets in the original Star Trek series, I suspect a pocket-sized version will be available soon.

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