$10 Million Prize Offered for 'Tricorder'

(EndPlay Staff Reports) - A $10 million award is being offered for whomever can create a medical palm-held device that can diagnose diseases, similar to a "tricorder" from "Star Trek."

The Qualcomm Foundation and the X Prize Foundation recently announced the prize. What they are after is a portable, wireless device that can monitor and diagnose health conditions.

"The end result: Radical innovation in healthcare that will give individuals far greater choices in when, where and how they receive care," the announcement read.

The tool will have to be able to capture key health metrics and diagnose 15 diseases. Blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature are some of the possible metrics.

It is to be a device capable of consumer use and information stored upon it must be accessible remotely through the Internet. The maximum weight is 5 pounds.

The idea, an overview states, is to "inspire a future where consumers demand the tools to assess and manage their health independent of a hospital or doctor's office."

MSNBC reported the hope is to create such technology by 2015, not by the 23rd century pictured on the "Star Trek" science fiction show. Past X Prize contests have been held for such feats as private-sector spaceflight, ultra-efficient automobiles, low-cost genome sequencing and robotic moon missions.

The reusable spacecraft prize, the Ansari X Prize of 2004, went to a team behind SpaceShipOne. The BBC reported that Virgin Galactic used much of the technology for its attempt to create a reusable spacecraft.

So now the search is on to again make "science fiction" into "science fact."

"The tricorder that was used by Spock and Bones inspires a vision of what healthcare will be like in the future," X Prize Foundation chairman Peter Diamandis told the BBC.