Qualcomm are offering $10m to the first person who invents a Tricorder – a device which diagnoses illnesses and prescribes treatments.
To qualify the device must accurately diagnose 15 illnesses and in 30 people inside three days.
The Tricorder is the medical diagnostic tool used in Star Trek.
Qualcomm calls the contest the ‘Tricorder X Prize’.
“Health care today certainly falls far short of the vision portrayed in Star Trek,” says Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, “by sponsoring the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE competition, the Qualcomm Foundation will stimulate the imaginations of entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists and doctors to create wireless health services and technologies that improve lives, increase consumer access to healthcare and drive efficiencies in the healthcare system. This competition will accelerate the development of tools that can empower consumers to take charge of their own bodies and manage their own care.”
The judges will award bonus points to contestants for diagnosing in a useful way with health metrics like blood sugar count, blood pressure, breathing rate, temperature etc.
