Tricorder
EE Times: Star Trek’s ‘tricorder’ realized
The 20-pound, battery-powered unit combines a [tag]mass spectrometer[/tag] with a desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) source.
This device, which doesn’t have a cute name yet, is a general purpose sniffer that can take samples from the air and identify just about any substance known to man. The 300+ pound explosive detectors in use now require that samples be placed in the unit, and they are looking for just a few specific, common substances.
Considering that my PDA is much smaller than the electronic tablets in the first [tag]Star Trek[/tag] series, I suspect a pocket-sized version will be available soon.
