First Prototype of a Working Tricorder Unveiled At SXSW 61
the_newsbeagle writes The $10 million Tricorder X-prize is getting to the "put up or shut up" stage: The 10 finalists must turn in their working devices on June 1st for consumer testing. At SXSW last week, the finalist team Cloud DX showed off its prototype, which includes a wearable collar, a base station, a blood-testing stick, and a scanning wand. From the article: "The XPrize is partnering with the medical center at the University of California, San Diego on that consumer testing, since it requires recruiting more than 400 people with a variety of medical conditions. Grant Campany, director of the Tricorder XPrize, said he’s looking forward to getting those devices into real patients hands. 'This will be a practical demonstration of what the future of medicine will be like,' said Campany at that same SXSW talk, 'so we can scale it up after competition.'"
Well there was another tricorder (Score:4, Insightful)
But CBS ordered it removed from the app store:
http://www.geek.com/mobile/cbs... [geek.com]
Consent? (Score:2)
Yeah, and are these patients consenting to this? And what does the TOS say about who owns the data?
Sorry, but I interpret this as "we're going to give your private medical information to a corporation to test their technology, once they have it there's no going back".
Sounds incredibly stupid from a privac
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"Yeah, and are these patients consenting to this?"
I'd guess they'd have to sign a waiver..
"And what does the TOS say about who owns the data?"
Is that Terms Of Service, or The Original Series (since we are talking Star Trek)
Anyway there already exist those wheeled 'nurse on a stick' machines that measure vitals, I am not sure how much this tricorder adds to the diagnostics.
What is needed is connectivity between those machines and the software that does the charting.
Re:Consent? (Score:4)
You know that's how virtually all large clinical trials are done, right? There are lots of regulations, including international conventions, governing medical research. Subjects have to provide informed consent, and part of the "informed" part involves specifying what the data is going to be used for. If it weren't being done through a university's clinical research program, a la Facebook, you'd have a point.
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Yeah, and are these patients consenting to this?
Why are you assuming they aren't? The summary says "recruiting," not "press-ganging."
easy (Score:5, Insightful)
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Of course, I don't think any of us would want to be exposed to a working Tricorder -- they worked by bombarding the subject with EM radiation, including a bunch in the "radioactive" spectrum. In real life, the thing was likely to diagnose you as being in the early stages of cancer due to the tricorder itself.
So a few extra pieces to replace some of the EM stuff are welcome in my book, even if it's not quite as simple to use.
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Depends how much radiation is being emitted. Virtually everything is radioactive to some degree. A small amount of radiation is OK.
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Like a flashlight! Oh, you say it was supposed to emit x-rays as well? So like a CRT then.
Re:easy (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, I don't think any of us would want to be exposed to a working Tricorder -- they worked by bombarding the subject with EM radiation, including a bunch in the "radioactive" spectrum. In real life, the thing was likely to diagnose you as being in the early stages of cancer due to the tricorder itself..
Did they? I missed that episode.
I always thought that the ideal tricorder could accept a broad spectrum of natural radiations in 3 dimensions and use that to construct a bio-chemical-mechanical model of the subject. Thus the name "tricorder" being equally used for both medical purposes (medical tricorder) and general exploration (for example, Spock's tricorder).
Think about it. Every nanosecond we are being constantly bombarded by radio waves from Jupiter, the Sun, and the stars, cosmic rays, neutrinos, natural radioactivity from the ground we stand on and the air we breathe, light at various frequencies, including UV and IR, sound waves of all frequencies and that's not even factoring in man-made stuff like WKRP AM/FM, the local police/fire/rescue/transportation/etc and business channels or cell phones. Some of that stuff goes straight through, some reflects and/or refracts, some is absorbed selectively by various tissues, some is blocked. All you need is sensors, a computer powerful enough to correlate it, and software that can reduce it to usable data.
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All you need is sensors, a computer powerful enough to correlate it, and software that can reduce it to usable data.
You make it sound so easy!
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Well, All You Have To Do Is...
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Barclay: Computer, begin new program. Create as follows: workstation chair. Now, create a standard alphanumeric console, positioned for the left hand. Now an iconic display console, positioned for the right hand. Tie both consoles into the Enterprise main computer core, utilizing neural-scan interface.
Enterprise Computer: There is no such device on file.
Barclay: No problem. Here's how you build it.
Re:easy (Score:5, Informative)
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I would hope that the wand at least makes a sound when activated...
There was a wand (Score:2)
See the image on this page. [mesimedical.com]
I can't remember if there was a wand in every version of the tricorder, but I could have sworn I saw McCoy using the wand also.
Not that we want to get TOO bound up in limiting a really useful medical device to the exact form factor of a TV show prop...
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You're probably correct about the wand, but I don't believe McCoy ever used a tricorder. If memory serves, he placed patients under a device with the Gian monitor.
I believe the tricorder is a TNG thing, especially since it seemed to composed of three parts.
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I don't think he used it often, but I did manage to find a shot of McCoy with a tricorder. [digitalmediaacademy.org]
Re:easy (Score:5, Informative)
The contest requirements [xprize.org] are very specific on the device's testing capabilities, here they are:
The Core Set (Qualifying requires 5/13, Final Round requires all 13):
1. Anemia
2. Urinary tract infection, lower
3. Diabetes
4. Atrial fibrillation
5. Stroke
6. Sleep apnea, obstructive
7. Tuberculosis
8. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
9. Pneumonia
10. Otitis ("ear infection")
11. Leukocytosis
12. Hepatitis A
13. Absence of Core Conditions
The Elective Set (Qualifying requires 1, Final Round requires 3):
1. Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
2. Hypertension
3. Mononucleosis
4. Allergens (airborne)
5. Hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism
6. Food-borne illness
7. Shingles
8. Melanoma
9. Strep throat
10. Cholesterol Screen
11. HIV Screen
12. Osteoporosis
The Vital Signs Set (Qualifying requires 3, Final Round requires all 5):
1. Blood pressure
2. Electrocardiography (heart rate/variability)
3. Body temperature
4. Respiratory rate
5. Oxygen Saturation
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And this device will be able to test for these conditions in a few seconds? That would be really cool, since current tests for some of these take a day or more.
or multiple tests over time.
EG the TB test (yes I know its not called a manteau any more) has to be read between 48 - 72 hours. Other items on those lists need a culture to be examined after 24 hours.
Disclaimer: IAOACNA (I am only a CNA)
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And this device will be able to test for these conditions in a few seconds? That would be really cool, since current tests for some of these take a day or more.
How did you think Spock learned to stand so still?
I once glued three woodwind instruments together (Score:5, Funny)
I called it a tricorder
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Re: tricorder (Score:1, Informative)
Tricorder? Medical Tricorder!
Please state the nature of the medical emergency...
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Music is medicine for the soul.
GTFO (Score:2)
The top two stories on Slashdot right now are a working Tricorder at SXSW and Boeing patenting "Star Wars Style Force Field Technology".
I get that it's "News for Nerds" but can we please try to appeal to a readership that doesn't think the holocaust is the name of the new VR headset from Samsung?
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holocaust is the name of the new VR headset from Samsung?
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Of course it was. The entire comment was a way to get that joke in. I've been saving it for just such an occasion.
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Oh, I get that. But don't you think it's a little bit insulting that the only way they could make it interesting to Slashdot readers is to make references to bad 1970s sci-fi?
My problem is not with the new technology. My problem is that someone thinks we can only be interested via dumb fictional references.
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What's the immediate response to "We've invented deflector shields!" on Slashdot? "Cool, about time, we saw those in the 70s"
I'm not even going to be sarcastic with you about this article. The name of the fucking prize has 'tricorder' in it: http://tricorder.xprize.org/ [xprize.org]
Do you really expect someone to post to Slashdot and not mention that word? Really?
Always room for one more (Score:2)
Does Bennet Haselton think gold-pressed latinum is currently overvalued with respect to bitcoins?
Yeah But... (Score:1)
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They're doctors, dammit, not geologists...
Bone knives and bear skins (Score:3)
... you're asking me to work with equipment which is hardly very far ahead of stone knives and bearskins.
I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bear skins....
Stay true (Score:2)
The medical scanner needs to be fashioned from an old salt shaker.
uhhh far from it.... (Score:2)
Too late, already happened (Score:2)
Smartphones already are capable of measuring three different things, and with a bluetooth measuring device for any other measurements you might want to make, are pretty much what a tricorder appears to be, except they fit in your pocket.
Needle (Score:2)
No gadget that contains a needle (syringe type) should be called a tricorder in my book.
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