Real life Trek tech

Star Trek communications could help hospital save lives…
Star Trek-like technology from BT could be just what the doctor ordered for staff and patients at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Nottinghamshire.Previously, according to the trust’s own research, it used to take staff members, on average, six-and-a-half minutes to get in touch with a colleague using a telephone or pager.Now, following a successful trial with 75 users in its accident and emergency (A&E), radiology and medical admissions departments at Kings Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, the trust is using the wireless local area network-based BT Managed Vocera solution, to enable doctors and nurses to communicate with one another in a matter of seconds.
more at ITPro UK

 

A little home automation tidbit…
Voss International is offering a voice command operated light dimmer, it is a device that plugs into any power outlet responds to Star Trek-themed commands like, "Computer, Off." It even has Majel Barrett Roddenberry’s famous ‘Enterprise computer voice’ recorded as a response to your voice commands.

See the details at the product page

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This is all fine and dandy but how much do this fancy little doo – dads cost?

Like the article reads, “See the details at the product page.”

I’m surprised they can use the wireless LAN in the hospital since mobile phone signals can screw with things. I suppose it’s a different type of radio signal?

The dimmer thingy sounds like a fun gimmick, but $40 ($80, RRP) is a bit steep for a light switch.

Agreed, I’d like to have that kind of cool little interface but just too costly.

Ugh. I OWN that silly Picard/Playmate communicator. Yep… mint in box. Laugh at me, you jackals. Get it over with…

Yes, but do their sterile field chest units come with ashtrays? (Thinking waaaay back to “Journey to Babel.”
I know my quips should be funnier, but I was up until three watching syndicators hack up “Paradise Syndrome.”

I actually have the voice-activated dimmer; a good friend of mine bought it for me on the cheap while in Qatar. It works surprisingly well. I’ve had it installed on a hanging lamp in my living room for some time now, and I appreciate turning it on when I come into the house at night (no light switches near the door). Further, it cements my nerdity whenever I bring new people home … whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable, but I like it.

Beyond the obvious appeal to trek role playing fans this device has even broader marketing appeal.It’s a great way for parents to keep in contact with children who are at play or pre-teens in light of the recent reports of child abduction etc.It also displaces alot of resentment a child can feel about feeling too accountable to parents if it’s sold as a cool thing.

Greetings one and all,
They are using digital tech for the coms system were Cell phones use Micro wave Technologies. The U.S. Military has been using direct coms system for about 10 years now. You can run fiber optic cable thur out the hospital with converters built in the ceilings, with the transmitters planted thur out the building giving the system a clear singal. The problem is the people using the system.
Thanks for your time, McCoy97

I too have the Voice dimmer. It works very well!! I was able to hook it up to some fluorecent lights, so thats what runs the lights in my room, but I cant dim them, otherwise it will mess up the light.

I heard about the hospital using these a year or two ago in an old Star Trek: Communicator magazine!! So while both of these are cool, they are also both quite old.

Who cares if it’s “old news” to some? Working “communicators” being used in more hospitals with voice recognition? Pretty sweet if you ask me ;)

More Trek Tech in the news today:

“Purdue researchers have come up with a handheld device
they say can determine the chemical composition of an object
or detect trace elements on its surface, sort of like the tricorder
that the actors used to whip out on Star Trek.”

Well, not quite a tricorder. But, progress nonetheless.

http://news.com.com/Handheld+substance+scanner+becomes+a+reality/2100-11395_3-6162786.html

Ordered that voice light dimmer from vossystems.com, 4 weeks still nothing and no-one ever gets back to you. Visa can’t even contact them! Be warned.