Star Trek- style ‘ Tricorder’ likely soon

Jerusalem, April 3: Scientists are developing a new technology that could transform any smartphone into a Star Trek - style “Tricorder’ capable of identifying the chemical components of objects from a distance.

Star Trek’s “Tricorder” was an essential tool, a multifunctional hand- held device used to sense, compute and record data.

An invention by Tel Aviv University researchers may be able to turn smartphones into powerful hyperspectral sensors, capable of identifying the chemical components of objects from a distance. Professor David Mendlovic of TAU’s School of Electrical Engineering and his doctoral student, Ariel Raz, have combined the two necessary parts of this invention: an optical component and image processing software.

“A long list of fields stand to gain from this new technology,” said Mendlovic. “We predict hypers pec tral imaging will play a major role in consumer electronics, the automotive industry, biotechnology, and homeland security,” said Mendlovic.

Mendlovic and Raz, together with a team of researchers at the Un is pec tral Technologies firm, patented an optical component based on existing microelectromechanical or “MEMS” technology, suitable for mass production and compatible with standard smartphone camera designs.

The combination of this optical component and newly designed software go further than current smartphone cameras by offering superior imaging performance and hyperspectral imaging capabilities.

“The optical element acts as a tunable filter and the software — an image fusion library — would support this new component and extract all the relevant information from the image,” said Mendlovic.

The imaging works in both video and still photography, he said.