The Department of Homeland Security says that development is underway on a Star Trek style tricorder that can monitor a person's medical condition from 40 feet away.

The so-called Standoff Patient Triage Tool (SPTT) is described in glowing terms by the inhouse journal of the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, S&T Snapshots. The DHS S&T boys are people who also intend to give the world the puke ray light-sabre and the lobster-beam scanner.

This time, it seems they're looking to help out "first responders" (US speak for emergency services, mostly) arriving at the scene of a major disaster, terrorist strike or similar. In such situations it's necessary to swiftly sort the living casualties by priority order for medical care - "triage", as they call it in the trade.

“We thought, ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be nice if a responder, fully clothed in an emergency suit, could have a technology to take vital signs quickly from 5 to 40 feet away?’” says Greg Price of DHS S&T. (source The Register)

Read the full article here.