VaVaVoom

Admittedly, this isn't my most passionate post ever, but hey, SOMEONE BUILT A FUNCTIONAL TRICORDER. Engineering student Peter Jensen went ahead (and roused up the geek in all of us) and built the first fully functional tricorder.

Now most of us remember the tricorder as that funky thingamabob in Star Trek that we wish our smart phones would resemble in terms of function. Here's a shot of Jensen's finished machine.

I wish I was half that productive when I was an engineering student. Or half that cool, as a matter of fact.

Here's an excerpt of what the magical object can do, via dvice:

The Tricorder Mark 1 is, for all practical purposes, nearly identical to the device that we see in Star Trek, with the possible exception of being unable to reliably distinguish a Klingon from a Romulan. It's a self-contained, portable sensor system that can measure ambient temperature, humidity, air pressure, magnetic fields, surface temperatures, colors, ambient light level, ambient polarization, acceleration, direction, distance (ultrasonically), and of course it has a GPS receiver.

Sounds pretty handy for any scientist/adventurer/researcher on field. Or for Spock.

Lovely news, ladies and gentleman. Live long and prosper.