BAE first with Tri-corder? - Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums

ray gower · 7th May 2002, 03:23 PM

The Tri-corder is a remarkable beast, capable of supplying all the information one ever wanted on whatever it is aimed at.

How?

Well BAE may have part of the answer:-

From The Engineer:-
BAE Sensor Systems have developed a new handheld device for detecting and identifying unknown substances instantaeneously.

Aimed specifically at detecting bio-hazards and poisonous gases, it works by detecting infra-red absorbtion.

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/item.as...e=News&pub=eng

Well perhaps not quite?

Dave · 7th May 2002, 09:27 PM

Maybe that device isn't quite a tricorder yet, but if you add a GPS location device to it, and a temperature, humidity, pressure, and voltage recorder, and add it's own PC to analyse the data, then minaturize the whole unit, it would be fairly close.

The only problem would be the thing that reads life-signs, and that might be tricky!

ray gower · 7th May 2002, 10:06 PM

I don't think the integration would be difficult.

I used to own one of those fancy wrist watches that could tell you at a glance (after pressing some forgotten sequence of buttons) your heart rate, speed, ambient temperature and barometric pressure. It never worked particularly well, but it looked the biz.

My handheld PC is driven by two chips and the largest single part of a GPS tracker is the arial- That is only 2" long. Both run off a couple of AA batteries.

So the largest physical part is the display. Which is universally used.

The BAE part is a missing part on the way to making it useful.

Dave · 9th May 2002, 08:48 PM

That isn't the only company working in this area.

The Personal Digital Assistant is being developed by the US Military. In just the same way that Away Teams use their tricorders to plan decision-making on dangerous planets, the military are using PDAs to improve communication and the speed of transfer of information from their base to the field.

Also, NASA's Ames Research Center is building a "personal satellite assistant", powered by a Pentium II with a Linux operating system, to help out astronaunts on space shuttle and ISS missions. ZDNet reported last year that it is a six-inch spherical robot inspired by the sparing droid that Luke Skywalker fights in Star Wars. NASA engineers - many well know for their love of Star Trek- say it's function is closer to a tricorder: it senses pressure and temperature of the ambient atmosphere, and detects concentrations of gases like CO2 and O2.

7th May 2002, 03:23 PM	#1 (permalink)
ray gower Registered User Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Gwynedd Posts: 3,586	BAE first with Tri-corder? The Tri-corder is a remarkable beast, capable of supplying all the information one ever wanted on whatever it is aimed at. How? Well BAE may have part of the answer:- From The Engineer:- BAE Sensor Systems have developed a new handheld device for detecting and identifying unknown substances instantaeneously. Aimed specifically at detecting bio-hazards and poisonous gases, it works by detecting infra-red absorbtion. http://www.theengineer.co.uk/item.as...e=News&pub=eng Well perhaps not quite?

7th May 2002, 09:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
Dave Wherever I Am, I'm There Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Greater London Posts: 13,770 Blog Entries: 1	Maybe that device isn't quite a tricorder yet, but if you add a GPS location device to it, and a temperature, humidity, pressure, and voltage recorder, and add it's own PC to analyse the data, then minaturize the whole unit, it would be fairly close. The only problem would be the thing that reads life-signs, and that might be tricky!

7th May 2002, 10:06 PM	#3 (permalink)
ray gower Registered User Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Gwynedd Posts: 3,586	I don't think the integration would be difficult. I used to own one of those fancy wrist watches that could tell you at a glance (after pressing some forgotten sequence of buttons) your heart rate, speed, ambient temperature and barometric pressure. It never worked particularly well, but it looked the biz. My handheld PC is driven by two chips and the largest single part of a GPS tracker is the arial- That is only 2" long. Both run off a couple of AA batteries. So the largest physical part is the display. Which is universally used. The BAE part is a missing part on the way to making it useful.

9th May 2002, 08:48 PM	#4 (permalink)
Dave Wherever I Am, I'm There Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Greater London Posts: 13,770 Blog Entries: 1	That isn't the only company working in this area. The Personal Digital Assistant is being developed by the US Military. In just the same way that Away Teams use their tricorders to plan decision-making on dangerous planets, the military are using PDAs to improve communication and the speed of transfer of information from their base to the field. Also, NASA's Ames Research Center is building a "personal satellite assistant", powered by a Pentium II with a Linux operating system, to help out astronaunts on space shuttle and ISS missions. ZDNet reported last year that it is a six-inch spherical robot inspired by the sparing droid that Luke Skywalker fights in Star Wars. NASA engineers - many well know for their love of Star Trek- say it's function is closer to a tricorder: it senses pressure and temperature of the ambient atmosphere, and detects concentrations of gases like CO2 and O2.