Mark X Tricorder

TR-590 Tricorder X

Science Fiction:

A tricorder is a sophisticated handheld device used by many Alpha and Beta Quadrant races. The tricorder is designed as a portable sensing, data analysis, and data communications device, with many specialized abilities which make it an asset to crews aboard starships and space stations as well as on away missions.

Science Fact:

The first "real-world" tricorder was developed by a Canadian company called the Vital Technologies Corporation in 1996. The scanner was called the TR-107 Mark 1; Vital Technologies sold 10,000 of them before going out of business in 1997. The TR-107 could scan EM radiation, temperature, and barometric pressure.

The TR-107 is properly referred to as a true "tricorder" due to a clause in Gene Rodenberry's contracts with Desilu/Paramount dating back to the time of the Original Series. The clause specified that if any company could find a way to make one of the fictional devices actually work, then they would have the right to use the name.