Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tricorders

how's it going my dudes this video is brought to you by Squarespace today you know them as that cool little thing what sits in your hand and you can check the internet and everything on the no I'm kidding it's of course not your smartphone it's the tricorder it's been around in Star Trek since 1966 and you might be a bit surprised to find out where the idea for the tricorder originally came from thank you so much to the wonderful Jack Kylie for writing the original article upon which this is based I'm Sean fck for track culture and here are 10 things you didn't know about tricars number 10 a brief history of the ones that occasionally explode the world's most famous scanning device has a three-fold name but the story of its creation is twofold the original impetus for the idea came from Jean rodenburgh as a way to expand the role of the yman in a membo to Robert H Justman from the 14th of April 1966 as cited in the mating of Star Trek rodden noted it has been suggested that she meaning the captain Zen carry as part of her regular equipment some sort of neat over the-shoulder recorder electronic camera haven't given much creative thought to what this would look like such thought went to oscar-winning artist designer and sculptor waming Chang as brilliant as he was prolific Chang had already designed the toosan heads for the cage and later created the m113 salt creatures the balock Effigy the Gorn the tribles the Vulcan loot the Romulan bird of prey the classic flip communicator and built the phaser props based on Matt jeffy's design for his tricorder design and build Chang charged Desu Studio a mere $275 a piece his initial sketch that can be found in inside Star Trek the real story is both elegantly simple and finely detailed featuring The Familiar screen information discs top pivot and push buttons that make the device iconic with or without a certain tendency to explode number nine naming magic according to the Starfleet medical reference manual tricorders are in practice a small sensor computer recorder or a tri function recorder the fact that the meaning of the name has never been discussed explicitly on screen gets the Star Trek lower deck treatment in the soon Tobe released USS SOS crew handbook as nen Rutherford States good old triy they called it a tricorder cuz it cords so many more than three things in Star Trek Enterprise they were just called hand scanners of course simpler times what it does cord as a matter of advanced future science fact does just as well to be mostly indistinguishable from Magic a handy device to move the plot along we're never actually shown the tricorder operations manual occasionally TV magic also clashes with inor practicalities just how did Voyager get those tricorder upgrades in season 2 if you believe Rick sternbach they had them in the cargo bay all along the original series era tricorders weren't given a model number until perhaps most recently in those old scientists when boyler suggested that ts222 might be the model's true name with the ts120 being a predecessor track following Century then gave us a whole new series of names for a brand new series of Tri quarters number eight next gen from start the next Generation onwards we've had the TR 566 the TR 587 the TR 59010 and 11 the Admiral Janeway future erased ones the relatively Slimline ones tr89 15 those Nemesis pan pilot ones and the purple stripe ones amongst other Tri quars the farthest far future of scanning is all about what you can cram into a tri combat and in Star Trek insurrection we also got the sneakiest of Peaks at the wrist tricorder wearable tech that'll never catch you on it is sadly not true that Martin Cooper's original mobile phone was inspired by Star Trek but Motorola did give a knowing nod to the original series Communicator when they named their first clamshell phone the star Tac in 1996 art imitated life imitated art when the 25th Century tricorders got a very 21st century upgrade in Star Trek bards season 2 they were Samsung Z flip phones in a case a medical version with a detachable hand scanner was also seen in Picard season 3 all the flip tricorder designs in the Next Generation Voyer and Deep Space 9 were the work of senior production illustrator and designer Rick sternbach who also co-designed Deep Space 9 the Intrepid and Prometheus class the runabouts and the Delta Flyer number seven uses misuses and abuses there's a big red bit labeled emerge emrg on the TR 560 580 and 590 tricorder modules you might think that this was to send a distress call but according to the Next Generation technical manual it's actually the emergency dump everything to the ship button pressing it will send the tri corder's entire memory up to a range of 40,000 km disabling all scanning functions for about 0.875 seconds and draining half the power as well aside from ensuring Starfleet has all your data before you die there are plenty of things you can do with a standard tricorder packed full of mechanical electromagnetic and Subspace sensors all tricorders from the start of the Next Generation to at least star Tre Nemesis had three input settings Geo for geological bio biological and met as in meteorological for all your scanning needs tricorders can't detect neutrino emissions however so connect to a visor instead the startrek Voyager technical manual gives a rather blunt description of how to use your tricorder simply point it at whatever it is you want to study if you're after exact detail on how to use one to cause localized seismic disruptions or anesthetize a patient then check out the Starfleet Survival Guide note that to really mess with the tricorder you'll need a thoron generator number six medical tricorder we have Beverly Crusher or rather gates mcfaden to thank in part for the gloriously detailed TNG era tricorder technical information available to us mcfaden a stickler for getting medical procedure as accurate as possible as they put it in the Star Trek the Next Generation technical manual requested a set of consistent operating guidelines that were then devised by designer Rick sternbach from the manuals we know that the Next Generation ation era medical Tri order is basically a standard Tri order with a specialized medical peripheral on top this attachment adds 86 electromagnetic devices designed for medical use the removable hand sensor has 15 highresolution devices capable of active and passive scans of the entire body internal organs infectious microorganisms and more the TR 590 tricorder X introduced in Star Trek Deep Space 9 and Voyager had the detachable hand scanner in the back the original series Medical tricorder was also a standard tricorder with Benefits according to the Starfleet medical reference manual the medical tricorder was outwardly similar to other modules but came equipped with a diagnose analyze and record modes as well as the remote scanner larger than its 21th Century counterparts the to Medical Tri quar had the handy advantage of a lower compartment with emergency surgical kit number five Klingons have HRA 2 so focused are we on our favorite Starfleet models we often forget that other alien species in TK have their own versions of the tricorder even the Warrior Race needs to scan things all they're better to batle you in the end the first time we saw a klling on tricorder HRA singular in the language on screen was in Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock when cruge whipped one out on the Genesis Planet the piece was designed by industrial Light and Magic who also created the Klingon bird of prey Communicator deck tag knife and the updated starfly tricorder for the film the reference book The Art of Star Trek has the preliminary sketch of the on tricorder with springloaded on mechanism as well as practical lights and a note stating will have one or two lights in the back as well the first Romulan Tri order to be named as such in dialogue appeared in Star Trek generations and was designed by John EES EES also designed the distinctly less Hefty jamadar Dominion tricorder for the Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode Hippocratic Oath his original concept art showing the tricorder with velcro prop attachment for a ghadar forearm was auctioned for2 $ By icollector.com Number Four toys and tape recorders if you grew up in the 1970s you probably had your eye on the Migo corporation's first ever Star Trek action figures and accompanying Enterprise Bridge playset with spinar around transporter and a whole two stools did the Spock figurine talk to you in a dream as well as getting your transporter in a Twist you might have spent 1976 begging your parents for the Migo Star Trek tricorder essentially a jazzed up tape recorder with a microphone the Migo tricorder did did have a flip top lid and a relatively recognizable rotating Mo display screen it also came with a cassette that on one side played 30 minutes of audio from The Menagerie Parts one and two the other side was left blank allowing children overgrown or otherwise to tape their own Adventures as a commercial from the time put it why was it blue daa d da damned if I know the design of toy replica tricorders has certainly improved over the years the Playmates and diamond select varieties certainly look the part and the technology is keeping up too the wand company is set to release a functional original series Style tricorder with actual sensors and Sound Recorder a working display screen and interchangeable data discs number three whatever happened to the psycho tricorder this isn't the name of a bloodthirsty censured tricorder that will stab you in the shower it's an offshoot of the medical model that only ever featured in one episode of the original series wolf and the fold the psycho trike order as seen in that episode was also just a standard Tri order prop capable of scanning and recording memories and of psychological examination more generally the psycho tricorder could be operated by a medical technician although they might get killed by Jack the river before they can get to the bottom of any hysterical Amnesia the psycho tricorder has appeared in a smattering of beta cannon works in the original series muds Angels short story the business as usual during altercations we even get a psychohistorian with a psycho tricorder but that's about it it is possible that the functions of the psycho tricorder were later Incorporated ated into the standard medical trike order or made redundant by other techniques in the Star Trek Voyager episode night the doctor uses a medical trike order to help diagnose helix's anxiety attacks as nyop phobia the fear of nothingness number two Raspberry p in the sky back in the day you could transform your Pam pilot or pocket PC remember those I'm so old into a rudimentary tricorder then there was naturally an app for that although not without a few cease and assists from CBS taking full advantage of the miniaturized computer power of the Raspberry Pi fans have also built their own impressive multifunctional models neatly nicknamed pie quars Chris detective zero Barrett or obso 1337 on YouTube is one such fan who took a diamond select TOS science tricorder and turned it into much more Barrett disassembled the toy added in the Raspberry Pi a display screen battery and a sense hat board originally developed for use on the ISS equipped with an accelerometer magnetometer G gyroscope barometer and temperature and humidity sensors not only does Barrett's to Tri porder TR 108 and his naming system look like the real thing it works like one too capable of recording sensor data from the environment and translating it on screen as close to the original series Graphics as possible and if that weren't extraordinary enough his next project the porder 2 TR 109 was based on the Next Generation TR 566 model with functional buttons a display screen light a thermal camera and an environmental sensor package this guy's awesome and I would like to be his friend number one take your sci-fi art scan a broken heart what medical professionals do today by employing an array of tests techniques and Technologies has been pretty much scaled down to the one belt clippable or overthe shoulder carriable in Star Trek the vision of such diagnostic ease has inspired many to translate the onscreen dream of the medical tricorder into a real life Lifesaver in 2012 the xprize foundation a nonprofit that does its best to promote a gene rodenburgh EST Equitable and hopeful future of abundance for all launched the Qualcomm tricorder X prise teams were challenged to create a tricorder like device that could accurately diagnose 10 core medical conditions such as atrial fibrillation and abnormal heart rhythm diabetes or stroke and three elective conditions including hypertension monos glandular fever and HIV the device also had to be capable of monitoring five vital signs in real time 5 years later no participant had met all of the criteria for the $10 million grand prize but the trly named final frontier medical devices won the first prize of $2.6 million for dxt an athome medical instrument kit with AI diagnostic app voyagers EMH Robert Bardo even opened the awards ceremony with the required please date the nature of the medical emergency dudes it's your favorite risey and meteorologist Chad TKA here to tell you about the awesomeness of Squarespace they've got the next generation of Technology with their fluid engine you know me my friends I'm salt ariser I don't get that techno Bobble so when I talk about fluid engine and how awesome Squarespace is to use even I can use it if I can you can they can even help you make costum merch sign chai darker neck braces coming soon and you can sell it by the online store that yah they offer and when you're ready to rip some waves like me good to space.com TR culture for a free trial and for 10% off your first website or domain purchase you're awesome my dudes do the awesome thing Chad Target out that is everything for our list this has been one of the most fascinating ones I've recorded in a while so thank you so much to Jack Kylie for the original article on which this is based thank you as well to Mel Braun for editing this into the Beautiful video you have just seen folks don't forget to go and follow us on Twitter @ Tre culture you can follow us on Instagram at Tre culture YT and we are of course on blue sky as well at Tre culture please make sure that you are liking sharing and subscribing make sure that you live long and prosper make sure that you look after yourselves give yourself a scan every so often to make sure that everything is going okay for you thanks a million and I'll talk to you soon bye

Channel: TrekCulture

Views: 143,655

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Id: lE-G6MqbmW8

Length: 14min 13sec (853 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024