The first time a tricorder is ever seeen...

[LMFAOschwarz]

Communicators are repeatedly shown having surface-to-orbit capability, but also deep-space-to-planet ability as well. ("Mudd's Women", "Metamorphosis", TNG's "Silicon Avatar"). It seems unlikely that any cellphone, smart or otherwise, will facilitate off-world party-to-party communications in our lifetimes.

"I can't contact the Enterprise, sir. I've only got two bars!"

While the tricorder may look and sound more awkward today, it's a safe bet that no mobile gadget (or any descendent of them, for many years to come) can independently scan space from the surface of a planetary body to detect an orbiting space vessel (or lack thereof). ("That Which Survives", STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT)

I've been thinking more about the tricorder, and it occurred to me that its uses might be limited only by the imagination of the user. If you had one in our present-day world, you could locate buried rocks, in the event you were going to dig holes for fence posts (think of all the work, sweat and swearing that'd save!). Or, locate the best spot to dig a well. Detect the presence of sharks at the oceanside, pre-swim. Have a food allergy? You could scan food for the ingredients you must avoid. All sorts of things.

Now I want one!

 

[Wingsley]

^ You could also detect, track and catalog all orbiting objects, from space junk and weather sats to the International Space Station. All with no outside help.

Always remember this exchange between Kirk and Proconsul Claudius Marcus in "Bread and Circuses":

CLAUDIUS: Very wise of you, Captain. No point in sending up bullet-ridden corpses.

KIRK: Yet on the other hand, my chief engineer's standing by for a message.

CLAUDIUS: I do hope so, for your sake. Now, Captain, what are you going to order your men to do?

KIRK: If I brought down a hundred of them armed with phasers…

CLAUDIUS: You could probably defeat the combined armies of our entire empire, and violate your oath regarding noninterference with other societies. I believe you all swear you'll die before you'd violate that directive. Am I right?

SPOCK: Quite correct.

MCCOY: Must you always be so blasted honest?

CLAUDIUS: But on the other hand, why even bother to send your men down? From what I understand, your vessel could lay waste to the entire surface of the world. Oh, but there's that Prime Directive in the way again. Can't interfere.

In that encounter, it is clear that a starship can triangulate on a communicator's signal to beam up a landing party in a tight situation. (If so instructed)

It is also established that 100 men, armed with phasers (probably rifles, but who knows?) could devastate the combined armies of an industrial-age society's superpower.

In other words, their handheld technology is well beyond anything we can produce now.

And don't forget how Kirk and Spock held off Ma'ab's force on Capella IV by shattering a rock face using only two communicators to produce sound waves.

 

[GSchnitzer]

"But what was the nature of its first appearance? Was it used on some far-flung planet to detect some new type of life form? To find some exotic element on an alien asteroid? How about... as a tape recorder for a meeting?

"That's right – the first time we ever see the super-complex, ultra-sophisticated device, it is sitting on a conference room table and is apparently taking the minutes of a meeting. Exciting adventure stuff, right? Hey, everything has to start someplace."

*******

For what it's worth, although this indeed is the first appearance of a tricorder, it's still unclear what its function is at this "Mudd's Women" hearing. The script for "Mudd's Women" has a bit of information about the "recorder" that is operated by Scott at the beginning and at the conclusion of the proceedings:


INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - ANGLE ON RECORDER

The recorder light on, a hand adjusting it as we hear:

KIRK'S VOICE

...on star date thirteen twenty-
nine point two... on board the
U.S.S. Enterprise in compliance
with Article Nine, the Uniform
Code of Interplanetary Justice.
Mister Spock--

So, the device of record for this hearing would seem to be the "recorder" sitting in front of Scott:

We would see the device in a similar situation in "The Man Trap," when it is used in the Briefing Room during the questioning of Dr. Crater. We continued to see it in different capacities throughout the series.

 

[Nebusj]

We would see the device in a similar situation in "The Man Trap," when it is used in the Briefing Room during the questioning of Dr. Crater. We continued to see it in different capacities throughout the series.

Oh, the dummies, they forgot to buy any cartridges for their Atari 2600.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Tricorders, in addition to being useful, allowed the characters to look useful, as if they were really doing things.

The device doesn't seem to exist in Encounter at Farpoint, for some reason. As Riker, Data, Geordi and Troi examine the caverns beneath the station, they mainly seem just walk around and look at things. The strangely-missing tricorder would have made them look less like they were wandering around lost, left to empty guesses.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Aren't Data and Geordi walking tricorders?

 

[Christopher]

Aren't Data and Geordi walking tricorders?

Not really. Geordi has the sensor capability, but not the computing power, while Data has the computing power but not the sensor capability. I don't think it's ever really been established that Data's sensorium extends particularly far beyond the human norm.

 

[Melakon]

The Tricorder is one of my favorite props from Trek- I never could however figure out how all those elaborate functions could be controlled by three push buttons...

Well, if it helps, I think they're actually rotary knobs.

They worked just like Commando Cody/Rocketman's flying suit did, which had one rotary knob for Up, Down, and another for Fast, Slow.

 

[Mytran]

Aren't Data and Geordi walking tricorders?

Not really. Geordi has the sensor capability, but not the computing power, while Data has the computing power but not the sensor capability. I don't think it's ever really been established that Data's sensorium extends particularly far beyond the human norm.

I think Riker actually calls him out on that fact in the same episode; Data responds with "I can't see as well as Geordi..."

And yes, he uses a contraction!

 

[GSchnitzer]

Oh, the dummies, they forgot to buy any cartridges for their Atari 2600.

No, not an Atari 2600; they came out in 1977.

It's a Westinghouse Lumina H970X combination AM radio/lamp. The slick little design makes the radio's antenna into the lamp. (Yes, the lamp was used a couple of times (starting with "Dagger of the Mind") as a microphone.

 

[Push The Button]

Aren't Data and Geordi walking tricorders?

Not really. Geordi has the sensor capability, but not the computing power, while Data has the computing power but not the sensor capability. I don't think it's ever really been established that Data's sensorium extends particularly far beyond the human norm.

Now if you connected Geordi's visor to Data through a wireless link...

 

[urbandefault]

Oh, the dummies, they forgot to buy any cartridges for their Atari 2600.

No, not an Atari 2600; they came out in 1977.

It's a Westinghouse Lumina H970X combination AM radio/lamp. The slick little design makes the radio's antenna into the lamp. (Yes, the lamp was used a couple of times (starting with "Dagger of the Mind") as a microphone.

I thought that thing looked familiar! My parents had one of those in the mid-late 60s.

 

[GSchnitzer]

I thought that thing looked familiar! My parents had one of those in the mid-late 60s.

Cool! Sell it on eBay for $300.

 

[urbandefault]

I thought that thing looked familiar! My parents had one of those in the mid-late 60s.

Cool! Sell it on eBay for $300.

Alas, it's long gone. But I always liked it. Interesting design and functional too.

 

[GSchnitzer]

I thought that thing looked familiar! My parents had one of those in the mid-late 60s.

Cool! Sell it on eBay for $300.

Alas, it's long gone. But I always liked it. Interesting design and functional too.

Well then, maybe your parents' is the one *I* bought for $300.

 

[urbandefault]

Cool! Sell it on eBay for $300.

Alas, it's long gone. But I always liked it. Interesting design and functional too.

Well then, maybe your parents' is the one *I* bought for $300.