A $10m (6.5m) honor is on special discount to whoever can emanate a Star Trek-like medical "tricorder".
The Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize has challenged researchers to erect a apparatus able of capturing "key illness metrics and diagnosing a set of 15 diseases".
It needs to be light sufficient for would-be Dr McCoys to bring - a limit weight of 5lb (2.2kg).
The honor was launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
According to the authorized Star Trek technical manual, a tricorder is a unstable "sensing, computing and information communications device".
The pack prisoner the aptitude of the show's millions of viewers when it was initial used in the cult series' initial announce in 1966.
In the show, that was set in the 23rd Century, the crew's doctor was able to use the tricorder to diagnose an illness simply by scanning a person's body.
The endowment organisers hope the outrageous honor might enthuse a present-day operative to figure out the sci-fi gadget's secret, and "make 23rd Century scholarship novella a 21st Century medical reality".
"I'm probably the initial man who's here in Vegas who would be cheerful to remove $10m," mentioned X Prize Foundation chairperson Peter Diamandis.
While the tricorder is clearly the things of scholarship fiction, other X Prizes have turn scholarship fact.
In 2004, the Ansari X Prize for a secretly saved reusable booster was awarded to the group at the back SpaceShipOne .
Much of the technology they created was subsequently utilized by Virgin Galactic .
Prof Jeremy Nicholson, head of the subdepartment of operation and cancer at Imperial College London, told the BBC there are already medical gadgets that discover containing alkali signs of illness to support diagnosis.
However, he warned that bringing this technology together in to a tricorder-sized square of equipment would be a really daunting challenge.
"The many expected arrange of technology would be something that detects metabolites," Prof Nicholson said.
"What you use in our laboratory is large - the size of a Mini. The dare is adhering it all in to a device."
Prof Nicholson considered "grand challenges" similar to the tricorder honor helped kindle innovation, and are "good fun".
But he doubted the Qualcomm Foundation would be awarding the honor any time soon.
"The challenges are: What is it you detect, what are the samples you can obtain and how do you put it all together in a gizmo?
"I do not regard there'll be many people getting that honor in the nearby future."
Even if the device could be made, he continued, contrast and obtaining consent for medical use might take much longer.
However, for Mr Diamandis the small fact the honor exists could renovate healthcare.
"It's not a singular indicate solution. What we're seeking for is to launch a new industry," he said.
"The tricorder that was used by Spock and Bones inspires a prophesy of what healthcare will be similar to in the future.
"It will be wireless, mobile and minimally- or non-invasive.
"It might use digital imaging, it might be sequencing your gene on the mark to discuss it you if you are allergic to something you only ate."
That might appear similar to an impossibly desirous set of goals, but fortunately, for those perplexing to win the prize, a underline of the Star Trek tricorder is not needed.
"We do not have a necessity that it creates the same noise," Mr Diamandis said.
No comments:
Post a Comment