The real-life tricorder

 

From the dailymail.co.uk (May 23):

The tricorder, a medical device that scan patients in seconds, originally shot to fame in Star Trek - but now a California firm has made it a reality.

The Scanadu Scout can measure your heart rate, temperature, blood oxygen levels, respiratory rate, blood pressure, ECG and emotional stress - just like Spock's handheld gadget.

It can be placed on the user’s forehead and within ten seconds uses Bluetooth to send the results direct to their smartphone after an array of sensors and a camera scan the patient.

It is also able to store previous results meaning that patients can track changes in their vital signs.

'The Scout puts your body’s information where it belongs: in your hands,' the firm says.

'Share it with your doctor and others to take health conversations – and discoveries – to a new level.' [read more]

Health discoveries to a new level? Hmmm. Don’t know if that sounds good or not. Discovering something about your body is usually not a good thing. Although, hypochondriacs would love this device.

Somebody commented that it needs to monitor blood sugar and hormone levels. Maybe in the next version.

I wonder if this gadget will be required when it gets fully developed and the Unaffordable N0-Care Act (Obamacare) kicks in. The gov’t could want all of its citizens to upload their health data using this device to a national database. Good for Scanadu (they make a lot of money) but not so good for the consumer.