FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO SCIENCE REALITY
The Coolest ‘Star Trek’ Technologies We Use Today
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Since its debut in 1966, “Star Trek” has been the source of many innovative and practical technologies that people in the real world couldn’t wait to replicate. Viewers were inspired and grew up to become the engineers and designers behind some of the most amazing technologies we use today. Communicators While cellphones are the most obvious Trek- inspired devices, Vocera Communications developed a device more in line with the “comm badge” seen in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and later shows. Used in the medical industry, the device clips on clothing and features one-touch, voice- controlled technology, allowing for medical personnel to seamlessly communicate with one another. Universal Translator On the show, this device allowed for real- time translation, though viewers never saw it. In the real world, you can find spoken-word translator apps in your favorite app store. You can even use the Google Translate app to take pictures of any foreign language documents or signage and it translates it back to you in real time. While these apps are not quite universal (or perfect), they work with many common languages and make global communication easier than ever before. Tricorders These handheld devices are all-in-one informational and diagnostic toolkits. They could scan and display a range of information from biological to geological. The medical variation allowed for a quick and painless diagnosis of virtually any ailment. Today, researchers have brought tricorders to life, creating devices that can scan a person or environment, giving users biological stats or environmental data. Replicators With 3D printers surging in popularity, the devices are quickly becoming sophisticated enough to replicate nearly any item you can think of. You could download a car if you wanted. (Though that would take a lot of time and effort!) Some labs around the world are even testing “food printing,” though we’re still a long way from replicating our favorite snacks. The remarkable thing about our real-world “Star Trek” technology is how so much of it is consolidated into one device: the smartphone. It’s a communicator, tricorder, universal translator, computer database, and so much more.
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