In the late 1960′s, Star Trek featured a fictional medical device, the Tricorder, a handheld device used for sensor scanning  and data analysis to diagnose a multitude of ailments non-invasively.

Now according to a post published by Wired Magazine’s Jesse Sunenblick, a $10 million X Prize is fuelling a race to make the Tricorder a reality that could possibly change health care in the future.

One of the contenders is Scanadu SCOUT, a device that monitors vital health signs such as heart rate and blood pressure, developed by Belgian digital entrepreneur Walter De Brouwer.

The research to make the tricorder a reality takes place at Scanadu, a deep-science research lab at NASA Ames in Silicon Valley, set up in 2011.

Read the full article at www.wired.co.uk.