Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tricorders

From Star Trek: The Next Generation onwards, we've had the TR-560 VI, the TR-580 VII, the TR-590 X and XI, the Admiral Janeway future-erased ones, the relativit-ely slimline ones (TR-890 XV), those Nemesis PalmPilot ones, and the purple stripe ones, amongst other tricorders. The farthest far future of scanning is all about what you can cram into a (tri)combadge, and in Star Trek: Insurrection, we also got the sneakiest of peeks at the wrist tricorder. Wearable technology? That'll never catch on!

It is sadly not true that Martin Cooper's original mobile phone was inspired by Star Trek, but Motorola did give a knowing nod to The Original Series communicator when they named their first clamshell phone the StarTAC in 1996! Art imitated life imitated art then when 25th century tricorders got a very 21st century 'upgrade' in Star Trek: Picard's season two — they were Samsung Z flip phones in a case. A medical version with detachable hand scanner was also seen in Picard season three.

All the flip-tricorder designs in TNG, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine were the work of senior production illustrator/designer Rick Sternbach, who also (co-)designed Deep Space 9, the Intrepid and Prometheus-class, the Runabouts, and the Delta Flyer.