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Remember the Star Trek Tricroder? That little gizmo that looks like a PDA and can provide any info on anything you point it at? Well, it doesn’t read minds, still it’s a handy encyclopedia.

Some people pointed out that Sci-Fi films tend to inspire our future technology and that seems obvious, since the good ol’ tricorder has recently materialized into a Palm-like scanner. Being pretty similar to the “real” tricorder, the new device is actually a portable imaging tool that enables quick and unobtrusive scanning of tissues when held over the patient's skin. So you can’t really go ahead and scan soil for gold and diamonds, not yet at least.

The intelligent device has been developed by researchers at Georgia Tech, relying on narrowband filter mosaics that make provision for multispectral imaging. This technology is supposed to improve the use and functionality of medical scanners, resulting into more accurate subsurface characterization.

That’s enough medical and technological jargon for today. What’s important is that this device will enable untrained personnel to assess the severity of an injury at a glance. As always, the device is in prototype phase and nobody can make any estimation on the actual date it will get commercialized. .