Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I came across this and just had to respond. I couldn't disagree more. The tricoder was, and still is, ahead of its time. Not only was it a computer millions of times more powerful than anything we have today, but it utilized highly sophisticated AI algorithms to scan for basically any pattern. It was also an information storage device of huge capacity, an information transmission and retrieval device, and an information recording device. It performed passive and *active* scanning where active scanning is the emission of practically any kind of flux of particles or any other type of radiation or energy to see how the environment responds. It had a scanning radius of thousands of miles and due to the aforementioned features, the user could scan for something non-specific, or just anything for that matter, and if it was there it would be recognized. Lastly, it could also function as a communications device and an auxiliary power source as its power cells basically lasted forever. If you watch Star Trek : The Next Generation, you can see that they got it almost all right as almost everything has a touch-display interface, including the new tricorder which has been upgraded with fewer buttons and a larger touch sensitive display -- ahead of its time for the 80's. But that's exactly what a tricorder is! It's your basic pocketable subcompact swiss-army-knife of the 23rd or 24th centuries. jdb2