Star Trek Tricorder Arrives

X-Prize Awards Qualcomm Wins

R. Colin Johnson

4/14/2017

LAKE WALES, Fla. -- The $2.6 million purse for the four-year long Tricorder X-Prize contest sponsored by Qualcomm Foundation went to the Pennsylvanian-based Final Frontier team, led by brothers Basil Harris, an emergency medicine physician, and George Harris, a network engineer.

A $1 million second place purse went to the Taiwan-based Dynamic Biomarkers Team, led by Harvard Medical School Professor Chung-Kang Peng and funded by HTC. A third prize of $100,000 was awarded to the Cloud Dx Team, called a “Bold Epic Innovator” for its demonstration, which was "outside the criteria" of the competition rules.

Original Tricorder in the Star Trek franchise was set in the 23rd century, but it has arrived early thanks to the Qualcomm Research sponsored X-Prize awarded this week.
(Source: Star Trek, CBS Interactive Inc.)

The original Star Trek Tricorder was used as a diagnostic unit by the character Dr. McCoy in the original 1960d TV series, augmented by a hand-held scanner he waved over the patient's body. The instant-diagnosis, plus the ability to be used by non-doctors, too, was the goal of the Tricorder X-Prize. Home diagnosis in developed countries, and community-center diagnoses in developing countries, aims to level the playing field worldwide in medical diagnosis.

The overwhelming success of the contest, with no major engineering hurdles remaining, prompted the X-Prize committee to add a first ever post-competition program to develop the inventions for worldwide distribution. These devices will be able to monitor the five vital signs plus instantly diagnose the 13 most damaging medical conditions worldwide.

Box full of Final Frontier's handheld part of its 23rd century Star Trek Tricorder realized 200 years early.
(Source: Final Frontier)

The main difference between the Final Frontier solution and that of Dynamic Biomarkers was that the former used a cluster of non-invasive sensors to collect data and wirelessly transmit them to an artificial intelligence engine which made the diagnoses. Dynamics Biomarker's solution, on the other hand, used a methodology closer to the original Star Trek single-scanner paired to diagnostic analytics in a device controlled by a smartphone.

3-D printer, MakerBot, additively assembling the shell for the electronics in the handheld part of the Final Frontier Team (led by Pennsylvanian brothers Dr. Basil Harris, an emergency medicine physician, and George Harris, a network engineer).
(Source: Final Frontier)

The Qualcommh Foundation will donate $3.8 million toward the development of consumer versions of the Tricorder as well as testing, guidance and marketing worldwide, including a feature-length documentary to be directed by an as yet unnamed Oscar-nominated director. Much of the work ($2.5 million worth) will be performed by the University of California, San Diego, and its Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute.

Dr. McCoy on StarTrek using his handheld scanner (right) inform his handheld Tricorder (left) as to the medical condition of a crew member in-the-field.
(Source: Star Trek, CBS Interactive Inc.)

Gene Roddenberry's own Foundation will kick-in another $1.6 million toward adapting the Tricorders for use in hospitals and community centers in developing countries, starting in Mozambique, Africa.

Second place winners, funded by HTC, mimic the Star Trek two-piece architecture with a handheld scanner (left) and a desktop diagnostic unit which has not quite yet been shrunk to handheld size.
(Source: Dynamic Biomarkers Team, HTC)

For more information visit the Tricorder website.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331604