" Beam us up . " It ’s one of the most iconic lines intelevisionhistory . It ’s something often heard in the hit science fiction television series " Star Trek " and all of thetelevision showsand movies that followed .
The conveyer belt essentially dematerialise a human body at one point only to rematerialize it in the transporter bay on the ship . Somehow , it broke down atoms and molecules within the body – dust them through the vacancy of space without losing a unmarried one from point in time A to point atomic number 5 , then voila , that someone re - issue out of thin air . sound pretty nerveless , though impossible , right ? But what if there was such a equipment ?
The Sojourner Truth is , you could forget about a transporter . No one has been capable to realize such a concept . But that does n’t think of some of the ideas that seemed far - fetched when the show debuted in 1966 have n’t become a realness . In this article , we sport the top 10 technology from Star Trek that actually did come to realization , listed in no particular monastic order . Some of them may surprise you .
10: Transparent Aluminum (Armor)
The 4th installment of the original " Star Trek " picture show is perhaps the most endearing to buff . The crew returns to advanced - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Earth . Kirk , Spock and the rest of the gang trench a Klingon Bird of Prey spacecraft in the San Francisco Bay after narrowly miss the Golden Gate Bridge while fly blind in a storm . You may commemorate the scene – but how many of you remember Scotty innovate transparent aluminum for the first time ?
In the flick , Scotty trade the formula matrix for transparentaluminum– a huge engineering advancement – for canvass of plexiglass for build a tank to enrapture the two humpback whale whale ( George and Gracie ) to the Earth of their time . The call was that you ’d be able to replace six - inch ( 14 - centimetre ) thick Plexiglas with one - in ( 2.5 - centimetre ) thick see - through aluminum .
It may vocalise unsufferable , but there is such a thing astransparent aluminium armoror Al oxynitride ( ALON ) as it ’s more commonly known . ALONis a ceramic textile that starts out as a powder before heat and pressure become it into a transparent form similar to glass . Once in the crystalline physical body , the material is firm enough to hold up bullets . polish the molded ALON strengthens the material even more . The Air Force has test the material in hope of replace window and canopy in its aircraft . Transparent aluminum armour is lighter and potent thanbulletproof glass . Less weight , stronger material – what ’s not to care ?
9: Communicators
Whenever Captain Kirk leave the secure confines of the initiative , he did so know it could be the last time he saw his ship . Danger was never far off . And when in hurt and in need of helper in a arrest , he could always weigh on Bones to come up with a miracle cure , Scotty to glow him up or Spock to give him some critical scientific information . He ’d just whip out his communicator and place a call .
Fast - forward 30 year and would n’t you know it , it seems like everyone carries a communicator . We just know them ascell phones . Actually , the communicator in " Star Trek " were more like the push - to - spill the beans , mortal - to - mortal devices first made pop by Nextel in the mid to late ' XC . The " Star Trek " communicator had a impudent antenna that when opened , actuate the machine . The original impudent cadre phone are perhaps remote cousins . Whatever the case , the creators of " Star Trek " were on to something because you ’d be hard - pressed to find many mass without a cell phone these day .
In later personification of the " Star Trek " franchise , the communicators evolved to being housed in the Starfleet logotype on the crew member ’s chest . With the tap of a fingerbreadth , communication between crewmembers became even gentle . Vocera Communications has a similar merchandise that can connect the great unwashed on the same connection inside a designated area like an office or a building by using the include software over a wireless LAN . The B2000 communication badge weighs less than two snow leopard and can be worn on the lapel of a coat or shirt and allows clear two - way communicating . It ’s even design to suppress the increment of bacteria so it ’s worthy for doctors [ seed : Vocera ] .
8: Hypospray
The creative squad behind " Star Trek " found spiffy direction to spice up up some activities we endure on a daylight - to - day cornerstone . Take medical intervention , for representative : Not many people relish convey a flu shot , and in " Star Trek , " inoculating patients was one of Dr. Leonard " Bones " McCoy ’s chief duties . It seemed not an instalment proceed by that pearl was n’t giving someone a shot of some sort of spacevaccine . But what was more bewitching was the appliance he used .
Hyposprayis a pattern of subcutaneous shot of medicament . A hypospray injectant is squeeze under the hide ( asubcutaneousinjection ) with gamy air insistency . The air air pressure shoots the liquid vaccine late enough into the skin that no needle is required . The substantial - cosmos practical software is have a go at it as ajet injector .
green injectors have been in purpose for many eld . In fact , the technology antecede " Star Trek . " Jet injectors were primitively design to be used in mass vaccinations . honey oil injectingis safe ( no needle to pass along infective disease ) and faster in administering vaccinum . Similar in visual aspect to an automotive paint gun , jet injection systems can use a larger container for the vaccine , thus allowing aesculapian staff office to inoculate more mass quicker .
7: Tractor Beams
WhenNASAneeds to make repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope , astronauts have to be specially trained to get out of the Space Shuttle for extravehicular activity . They also have to learn how to work within the confines of their space suits , with thickset gloves on . Would n’t it be squeamish to just work the telescope inside , where repairs would n’t be so ambitious and dangerous ?
In skill fabrication , space ship include the Starship Enterprise snatch up each other up using tractor beams . In some grammatical case , gravid vessel have a tractor beam potent enough to prevent small watercraft from bunk the gravitational effect . So is this science even plausible ?
Yes and no . optic tweezers are as snug as you ’re travel to get to a legitimate tractor beam on current - day terra firma . Scientists have harnessed smalllasersinto ray capable of manipulating mote and moving them with precision . Optical tweezersuse a focussed laser to trap and suspend microscopical particle in an optic sand trap . Scientists can use ocular tweezers to pin down and remove bacterium and variety cells . Optical tweezers are used mainly in studying the physical properties of DNA . While the beam used in optical tweezer are n’t strong enough to dock the space birdie to the International Space Station , it ’s a scratch in that direction .
6: Phasers
" Set phasers to stupefy " – another ofttimes - heard command given to the endeavor crew . The bunch often relied on the stun setting of their fictive artillery of choice have intercourse as a phaser . Armed with a phaser , Kirk and his colleagues had the ability to kill or more desirably , stun their resister and render them helpless .
Actually , stun gunshave been around for some time . In fact , electrical energy has been used for punishment and to control livestock as far back as the 1880s . But it was n’t until 1969 when a bozo key out Jack Cover invented the first Taser that the stun gun was most realized . The Taser fails to shoot down like the phaser did , yet , it packs enough of an electrical punch to render its victim disorientated , if not completely handicap .
Unlike the phaser , the Taser and other stun guns must come in physical liaison with the target so as to have any effect . Tasers take precaution of this by projecting two electrode , touch base by wires , which attach to the butt ’s tegument . Once in touch , the handheld whole transferselectricityto the target , thus get the stun effect . Stun guns with stationary electric contact probe are somewhat less in effect because while they have a interchangeable effect on the target , you have to be much confining ( within arm ’s length ) so as to zap your target .
Something more along the lines of the phaser may be in development . Applied Energetic has formulate Laser Guided Energy and Laser Induced Plasma Energy technologies that are pronounce to channelize high - potential drop bursts of energy to a target [ source : Applied Energetics ] . In other Scripture , these pulses of energy would daze the target and limit validatory damage . So a rightful phaser may soon be a realness .
5: Universal Translator
Imagine if no matter what country you visited , no matter what the refinement , you could empathize everything the endemic people were say . It sure would make trip easier . Take that thought to another level like say , if you were planet hop like the crowd onboard the Enterprise . Fortunately for Captain Kirk and his peers , they had auniversal translator .
The characters in " Star Trek " relied on a small twist that when spoken into , would translate the watchword into English . Guess what ? The technology be for us in the real human race . There are devices that permit you speak phrasal idiom in English and it will spit back to you the same rhetoric in a specified speech . The only job is , these machine only work for sure predetermined languages .
A dead on target ecumenical translator like the one on the show may not be a reality , but the engineering is uncommitted . Voice recognitionhas advance well since its inception . But computers have yet to be capable to get a line language . information processing system would be able to theoretically gather the selective information much quicker than a human brain , but a software program is subordinate on actual data . Someone has to take the metre and expense to put it together and make it available , which is probably why these system concenter on more popular languages .
4: Geordi’s VISOR
When " Star Trek : The Next genesis " thrust the love life of everything " Star Trek " back into pop culture , the offbeat Mr. Spock and crass Bones McCoy and others were supercede by a new roll . One of the most popular characters on the new show was engineer Geordi LaForge .
What made Geordi unique , perhaps even mysterious , was his funky eyewear . Geordi was blind , but after a surgical mathematical process and aid through the consumption of a equipment send for VISOR ( Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement ) , Geordi could see throughout the electromagnetic spectrum . Though it may sound far - bring in , in realness , similar engineering science exists that may someday bring muckle back to the blind .
In 2005 , a team of scientists from Stanford University successfully implanted a little scrap behind the retina of blind rat that enable them to pass a vision recognition test . The science behind the implants , orbionic eyesas they ’re ordinarily advert to , works much the way Geordi ’s VISOR did . The patient receives the implants behind the retina , then wears a pair of glasses check with a video tv camera . Light enters the camera and is work through a small wireless computer , which then broadcasts it as infrared LED images on the inside of the glasses . Those images are reflected back into the retina chip to stimulate photodiodes . The photodiodes reduplicate the lost retinal cell then modify ignitor into electric signals which in turn air nerve pulse to the brain .
What it all means is that in theory , a person with 20/400 sight ( blind ) , due to the deprivation of retinal cellphone from retinitis pigmentosa , can obtain 20/80 sight . It ’s not good enough to die the drive test ( normal vision is view 20/20 ) but it ’s good enough to read billboards and go about your day without the aid of a see - heart Canis familiaris .
3: Torpedo Coffins
In the second installment of the " Star Trek " movie enfranchisement , the dear Mr. Spock , play by Leonard Nimoy , died after saving the Starship Enterprise from sure disaster . The movie culminate with the crew firing Spock ’s corpse out of the torpedo bay in a coffin shaped like one of the ship ’s weapon , the photontorpedo .
think it or not , you too could be laid to eternal relaxation in your own Federation - approved photon gunslinger casket . OK , it may not technically be Federation - approve since there is no such thing as the United Federation of Planets ( UFP ) but the coffins are , in fact , very real .
design by Eternal Image , the " Star Trek " casket was slat to be available former 2009 , but is still not for sale as of this writing . The cost is yet to be determined . If the fan would favor to becremated , the company also plan to offer a " Star Trek " urn as well .
2: Telepresence
In 1966 , the mind of interact with each other while separated by the void of place seemed as far fetched as , well the idea of being in blank space . That ’s exactly what the estimate of telepresence is .
Telepresence is more than justvideo conferencing . The ocular aspect is of import and ingress is vital . In other words , the more convincing the trick of telepresence , the more you finger like you ’re there .
In 2008,AT&Tteamed up with Cisco in delivering the industry ’s first in - depth telepresence experience . The tonality to Cisco ’s TelePresence is the combination of sound recording , video and ambient lighting shape together . These telepresence kits are design to mirror environment and mimic phone so that users on each side of the telecasting group discussion will experience as though the images on the screen are in the same room with them . For illustration , the people in boardroom A will see the people on the cover in boardroom B as though they are sitting across the table from them . The ambient light and room lineament are constructed to mirror each other . certainly , these telepresence outfit are much more advanced than anything drummed up on " Star Trek , " but perhaps that ’s because the show sparked our imagination so many class ago .
1: Tricorders
How many of you remember that musical instrument Mr. Spock used to always carry over his shoulder , peculiarly when the crew ( commonly lie of only Spock and Captain Kirk ) first surveyed a new planet ? That was a tricorder .
One of the more utilitarian instruments available to " Star Trek " staff office , variations of the tricorder ( aesculapian , technology or scientific ) were used to measure everything from oxygen levels to discover diseases . Often times the tricorder gave an initial analytic thinking of the unexampled environment . So , what ’s the material - universe tie beam - in?NASAemploys a handheld equipment foretell LOCAD , which measure out for unwanted micro-organism such as E. coli , fungus and salmonella onboard the International Space Station [ informant : Coulter ] . Beyond that , two handheld medical devices may soon help doctors examinebloodflow and suss out for cancer , diabetes or bacterial infection .
Scientists at Loughborough University in England use photoplethysmography technology in a handheld machine that can supervise the functions of the heart . Meanwhile , research worker at Harvard Medical School have grow a small equipment that utilise similar applied science found inMRImachines that non - invasively scrutinise the body . Using nuclear charismatic resonance imaging , this twist would be sensitive enough to measure samples of as few as 10 possible infectious bacteria . This kind of sensibility ( 800 times more sensitive than sensing equipment presently used in aesculapian labs ) could inspire the way doctors diagnose disease [ source : Mick ] .
