Chapter 26 - Imagining the Star Trek Equivalent Omnitool (Patreon)

“The modern tricorder the Federation uses has gotten smaller and smaller as the technology improved. It’s no longer a bulky unit with a strap and a carrying case, like they had in the time of Kirk and Spock. At some point we decided carrying a unit like that was less than ideal, so we shrunk it to the size of the humanoid hand. It’s still clunky and awkward, in my opinion, still needs to be whipped out to use, opened so that it can begin functioning, can be knocked out of your hand, and easily taken away. You’ve also only got a few small, static readouts and displays to work with. Weren’t there many times in your career with Starfleet you wished the tricorder had more processing power, more memory, a better way to display, work with, and manipulate data and sensor information than those tiny fixed size screens?”

“Many times before,” Dax admitted with a smile.

“Let’s rethink and reimagine the design of the tricorder then! Give it a different shape that works better with the standard humanoid form, more secure real estate to attach to, which means it won’t be taken away as easily and the processing power and power cell can be greater since it’s no longer limited to the size of the humanoid hand. My omni-tool is like a modern day vambrace, attached and molded to the humanoid forearm on the non-dominant hand, beginning at the wrist and going to the elbow, which can rest over a uniform or other clothing. My design is like having a powerful computer and sensor apparatus on your arm, a better tricorder, always available to conduct scans with just a small gesture or verbal command, with a much more useful and versatile holo display and control interface that can be projected in the air and enlarged and manipulated tactilely by the user, or again with verbal commands.”