Startrek Technology

[huggybear]

What new technology is regarded as from the future, as we see in hospitals etc some of the techno stuff from startrek etc has actually been used .
ie: hand scanners.
What else can you say is from the future in the way of technology has been implemented into nowadays use.
It seems if it is invented on the tv soap programs like startek etc it finds its way into use nowadays.
What are your opinions etc to this fascinating topic, please post your views.

[Stuart]

Mobile phones.. If you'd told someone in the sixties or seventies that they would be able to even fit a portable phone into a bag, let alone have one that is actually smaller than the communicator used in Star Trek, they would have looked at you like you are insane.

[SMHarman]

And that took and sent photos, was a video communicator and could send the data back, making the tricorder look a little lame.

Also...

Memory cards. You look at the Micro SD or Sony M2 and think 1Gb + on a card the size of (or smaller than) my thumb nail*. James Bond would (and probably does) love this stuff, stealing the plans on microfilm, or photographing them on your digital camera and then stealing them on a micro memory card? Or sending them digitally to the Q.

*I'm also thinking that my 9 year old PC only came with a 4Gb HDD, also compare to the stack of 700 3.5in Floppy disks that would take!

Also...

RFiD tags, now that is clever two things talking to oneanother without contact.

[Xaccers]

nMRI scanners, able to see inside the body without cutting anyone open in real time rather than x-ray snaps like with CT scans.

[valor]

PDAs and Laptops, the hand held computer has been seen in most trek episodes right from the 60s.

[ZrByte]

Not trek exactly but the hydrogen powerplant and the hydrogen powered car have both been developed. The only reason we dont have them yet is supposedly due to production costs etc. I believe General motors own all the copyright etc so the new mondeo of 2020 might well be hydrogen powered

[Stuart]

Do General Motors own Ford then?

Originally Posted by ZrByte

Not trek exactly but the hydrogen powerplant and the hydrogen powered car have both been developed. The only reason we dont have them yet is supposedly due to production costs etc. I believe General motors own all the copyright etc so the new mondeo of 2020 might well be hydrogen powered

long way off being a realistic proposition, imo. For a start the current method used to manufacture hydrogen uses methane - which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Not such a 'clean' option, especially considering the expense & energy cost of installing an infrastructure to allow refueling.

Another aspect is that vehicles using hydrogen fuel cells will need large batteries, which will be difficult to safely dispose of.

It may be viable for mass transit vehicles, such as trains (one is due to go on trial in Japan, soon) - but not cars, yet, I don't think

[Xaccers]

Why would they need large batteries as well?

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Why would they need large batteries as well?

For help with extra power eg acceleration, hills & getting started. Although the energy use can be mitigated by regenerative braking, the materials used are expensive to produce & potentially polluting

[keithwalton]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Do General Motors own Ford then?

I think he meant the next vectra, Ford and GM are most certainly seperate companies

The system used by Bones to inject his patients is with us as well..Pity they don't use it on a regular basis when innoculating 200 year 9's with the BCG...It would save all the silliness of fainting kids due to scare stories about needles.

[Stuart]

We'll have doctors with Biobeds before you know it.

Originally Posted by Stuart C

We'll have doctors with Biobeds before you know it.

If they were in paediatrics, would they be BabyBioBeds?

[c1rcle]

Voice recognition software.