Smartphone with built-in 'Star Trek' tricorder to hit markets soon

Changhong’s H2 smartphone features SCiO molecular sensor that can scan and analyse physical objects

Remember the tricorder used by Spock and Dr McCoy in Star Trek to analyse all kinds of objects and materials on the show. Well, you'll soon be able to buy a real tricorder smartphone.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 event, Consumer Physics showed off the world's first smartphone with a built-in molecular scanner. The cellphone made by Chinese company Changhong is slated to go on sale in China in June for around $435.



Changhong’s H2 smartphone features a SCiO molecular sensor that can scan and analyse physical objects. The SCiO was first launched at last year’s CES as a standalone device.



How it works

The sensor absorbs light reflected from an object, breaks it down to a spectrum and analyses it to determine its chemical makeup, enabling the smartphone to read the unique molecular fingerprint of any object.

It also enables H2 to verify the product’s authenticity. You can also check how many calories your ice cream has or whether a product is fresh or not.



For example, if you're at the supermarket and you want to check how fresh the tomatoes are, instead of squeezing them, you can simply launch the SCiO app, hold the scanner up to the skin of the tomato, and it will tell you how fresh it is on a visual scale.



You can also replicate this process for your body to check your body mass index (BMI) in a matter of seconds.



Only time will tell if major smartphone manufacturers will follow Changhong and adopt the Consumer Physics' molecular sensor.


This article originally appeared on Mashable.