This story was 1st published in our sister Site, Digital World Native.
A team of researchers at Israel’s Tel Aviv University’s School of Electrical Engineering has announced that it had created a Star Trek-like ‘Tricorder’ device that could soon be available as part of the general smartphone technology. A Tricorder or Tri (3) – Sensing, Computing & Recording – corder is a device made popular by the Star Trek TV serial of yore, that the characters used to point at anything to know the material or substance’s composition, without collecting any physical evidence whatsoever
Announced on April 1 this year, the device at 1st glance may resemble a roll of toilet paper, but the technology, if it does become available to the masses, may turn smartphones into powerful hyperspectral sensors that will be able to identify the chemical composition of objects from a distance. Which means you will be able to point your smartphone camera (or ‘Tricorder’) at any object & within minutes, you will be told of its composition.
TAU Prof. David Mendlovic & his doctoral student, Ariel Raz combined an optical component & image processing software to create the device. The optical component is based on existing microelectromechanical (MEMS) technology. It’s already suitable for mass production & is compatible with standard smartphone camera designs. But it’s their software that enables the superior imaging performance & hyperspectral imaging capabilities. The imaging works in both video & still photography.
Once the device camera acquires an image, the data is further analyzed to extract the hyperspectral content at any location in the image.
The applications of this real life ‘Tricorder’ are vast & could prove highly useful. For example, it could be used on water or milk to detect the Content & decide if it has any contaminants. It could be zoom in on crops & vegetables to detect whether any excess fertilizer had been used or whether it was safe for human consumption.
Prof. Mendlovic & Raz worked with researchers at the Unispectral Technologies firm on this project. Unispectral is a spin-off startup established through TAU’s technology transfer & commercialization division called RAMOT. Unispectral has raised funding from the Momentum Fund, whose lead investors are the Tata Group, Ltd & Singapore’s Temasek. Sandisk Corp. is another key investor in this startup.
“A long list of fields stand to gain from this new technology,” said Prof. Mendlovic in a press release. “We predict hyperspectral imaging will play a major role in consumer electronics, the automotive industry, biotechnology, & homeland security.”
Unispectral is already engaged in discussions with major smartphone makers, wearable device makers & automotive companies interested in using the technology.
Image Credit: Tel Aviv University’s School of Electrical Engineering
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