Comments on: Open source "tricorders": handheld sensor packages for everyone

By: Jenn Chlebus

Jenn Chlebus — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:21:00 +0000

I was never really crazy about LCARS. Seems like a lot of screen real estate got wasted on pretty curves. I liked the Klingon hexagonal interface better.

By: Daemonworks

Daemonworks — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:02:00 +0000

I’ve often wondered… what are the three things a tricorder records, and why did they stop at three?

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 23:31:00 +0000

That's OK, I heard that CBS sues anything with an LCARS user interface.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:57:00 +0000

We’re already starting to do something like that at the (open source) educational non-profit I work at.

Here’s a post I just wrote about a week ago that describes streaming multi-sensor data into your browser from an Arduino through an ethernet cable. Then a few days ago we hacked together a version that can stream the data to your iPad or phone’s browser though Bluetooth. No apps needed, no drivers, nothing.

The beauty is that, as you say, all the rich processing can be developed in a web page or app.

Currently our hack that got the data streaming to a phone isn’t scalable, since it requires a fairly-expensive ethernet-to-bluetooth converter, but that’s a problem that should certainly be overcomable with a bit more hacking.

By: Hannah T

Hannah T — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:53:00 +0000

I’ll buy anything with an LCARS user interface.

By: teknocholer

teknocholer — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:50:00 +0000

That’s the first thing I thought too. It seems to me that technology has already gone beyond the standalone Tricorder concept. Witness this device to allow diabetics to monitor blood sugar:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2113676/New-iPhone-app-iBGStar-device-allow-diabetics-manage-condition.html

By: Sean Siem

Sean Siem — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:37:00 +0000

Yeah, an attachable sensor suite, with the ability for people who want to hack on them to make their own… make it open so that people can compete and innovate… slave it to blue-tooth probes and fixed sensors like a rain gauge or a temp probe… man the future’s turning out to be pretty cool.

By: Graeme Caldwell

Graeme Caldwell — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:31:00 +0000

Yes, this is very cool, but I’d love a sensor pack I could attach to the top of my phone, or a sort of sensor cradle to slot the phone into. It would be fairly easy to develop a number of android apps to take advantage of it, and with modern phones you’re going to get a lot more processing capacity as well as decent internet connectivity.

By: Jason Baker

Jason Baker — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:20:00 +0000

I really love this concept, but wonder if an open interface to the sensors we already carry with us on our cellphones might get more practical adoption.
Of course, I’d love to have more sensors on my cell phone while I’m at it.