Qualcomm Announces $10M Prize For Real Life Star Trek Gadget

Ruthless times, when you were dragged to a doctor but cry no more because technology promises a better future. Qualcomm has announced a $10M prize for anybody who comes out with a Star Trek like real life medical Tricorder. For the unfortunate kind who have not watched Star Trek and don’t make sense of the Tricorder, it is used by doctors to help diagnose diseases and collect bodily information about a patient in a 23rd century fictional Star Trek universe.

Dr. Eric Topol, the chief academic officer of Scripps Health with Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs took the stage at CES 2012 to talk how ARM and smartphones are emerging as medical tools. Dr. Jacobs in particular does not appreciate the long waiting hours and the inaccuracy that comes with unreliable medical professionals. As an alternative, Qualcomm wants to introduce a mobile self-diagnosis device for accurate scanning of diseases.



Dr. Topol, who already has some experience in this field and is the author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine shared some successful devices like the clip-on smartphone electrocardiogram (EKG) reader, made by Qualcomm-funded AliveCor, an Android widget that received real-time, continuous information from a glucose monitoring device, and a slick device from DNA Electronics that is a handheld DNA analyzer.

The ‘Tricorder’ winner would take an X-Prize which is a well-known name for hosting competitions to find superior solutions to existing ones. The past ventures have included space travel, fuel efficiency, and oil spill cleanup. Qualcomm is expecting an ”easy to use” device capable of broad self-diagnosis and the device which perfects it would take home $10M. Though the real Star Trek gadget functioned without the need to touch the patient, Qualcomm is letting that slide to ensure real products on the market.

Source: DailyTech Image Credit: Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize