TRICORDER
TRICORDER
The casing of Voyager's medical tricorder, like the Voyager standard tricorder, is gamma-strengthened polyduranide and believed to be more durable than the predecessor (which was constructed of micromilled duranium foam). As with the standard tricorder, the medical tricorder is divided into two hinged sections for compact storage. The control surfaces consist of ruggedised positive-feedback buttons and a 3.5x3.6 cm display screen. Internally the medical tricorder's major optronic subassemblies include the primary power loop, sensor assemblies, parallel processing block, control and display interface (CDI), subspace communication unit and multiple memory storage units. Power is provided to the total tricorder system via an induction-rechargeable sarium-krellide energy cell rated for 36 hours of continuous use with all its subsystems in active use. This is exactly twice the length of time for its predecessor. True power usage rate and maximum useful time is, of course, dependent on which subsystems are active, and is continuously computed for call-up on the display.
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A medical tricorder is activated but an alien DNA-thief in the body of Tom Paris does not know how to operate it in order to carry out a biobed diagnostic. The tricorder emits error alerts, and then the alien shuts it off. [#88 Vis à Vis] |
 Medical tricorder used by hypochondriac Crewman William Telfer. The Doctor does his own readings and gives him a clean bill of health, and confiscates the tricorder as Telfer should not have one. [Good Shepherd] |
 Medical tricorder in use in the field (on a planet surface). [Coda] |
As the sensor assemblies are designed to provide data specifically of a medical nature e.g. on biological functions, the number of sensor assemblies is unknown. But as Voyager's standard tricorder's sensor assemblies incorporate a total of 315 mechanical, electromagnetic, and subspace devices mounted about the internal frame as well as embedded in the casing material as conformal instruments, a similar capacity is likely for the medical tricorder, only configured differently to produce different kinds of read-out. As the Voyager standard tricorder represented improvements on its predecessor in all areas, such as sensors, data processing speed, equipment reliability and storage capacity, it is most likely that it also did so as regards the medical functions. The data storage sections include wafers of densified chromopolymer isolinear crystal; the total capacity of Voyager's standard tricorder is 9.12 kiloquads and the medical tricorder is likely to provide a similar measure as this would be considered essential for field conditions.
Typical power usage for the standard tricorder is 16.4 watts and may be the same for the medical tricorder.
Many of the medical tricorder's sensor assemblies may be clustered in the forward end for directional readings, as with the standard tricorder, although this would not be essential if reliance is placed on the separate deployable sensor. Active and passive scans provide detailed diagnostic readings of total body mechanical processes, organ system function, disease organism infiltration, and body electromagnetic conditions. Combined readings can synthesise images and numerical readouts to aid sickbay personnel in identifying biological antagonists and determining courses of treatment. The predecessor model featured no omnidirectional devices, although the standard tricorder does. It is likely, however, that the medical tricorder controls enable the user if necessary to take measurements of the area surrounding the scanned person in order to provide a comprehensive analysis by including background or secondary data.
 In sickbay the Doctor scans Neelix and diagnoses "nihiliphobia", the fear of nothingness. This is when Voyager is traversing the area known as the Void.[Night] |
 The Doctor uses a medical tricorder in sickbay to supplement readings from the primary biobed's scanners. [Extreme Risk] |
As with the standard tricorder, the computer capabilities of the medical tricorder are distributed through the device's five inner casing surfaces as preprocessors attached to the various sensors and polled main computing segments (PMCS). Each PMCS contains subsections dedicated to rapid management of the sensor assemblies, the prioritising of processing tasks, the routeing of processed data, and the management of control and power systems. The PMCS chips are rated at 275 GFP per second (gigafloating point).
The control and display interface (CDI) routes commands from the panel buttons and from the display screen to the PMCS for the execution of tricorder functions. There are no controls on the deployable sensor other than a power on/off control i.e. its data is sent to the main medical tricorder unit and manipulated there. Multiple functions can be run on the medical tricorder simultaneously, and are limited only by PMCS speed. In practice, users will normally carry out only a few separate scanning tasks or, where a particular known medical condition is suspected, standard groups of tasks that run concurrently. The opaque control surfaces are fabricated from thin-film copper dilefinate infused with metallic dyes to fix the graphical content. The display screen incorporates a standard nanopixel matrix similar to that used in PADDs and consoles.
 The Doctor resorts to disguising himself as an Elloran female in order to scan his difficult patient, Dr Zimmerman.[Lifeline] |
 In engineering Seven scans Torres when she collapses feeling sick and reports: "I'm detecting another lifesign....inside Lieutenant Torres. .... I believe she's pregnant." However it is not a medical tricorder. For a proper medical analysis Torres needs to go to sickbay.[Lineage] |
It is likely that, as with the medical tricorder's predecessor aboard the USS Enterprise, in the field the medical tricorder's database section draws upon an updatable file of known medical conditions for most humanoid types and DNA-based non-humanoids. When operating aboard ship, the medical tricorder can draw upon the entire medical database of USS Voyager as well as the files allocated to other disciplines, and thereby if required produce possible correlations that might assist in producing a correct and detailed diagnosis.
A wide selection of tomographic* and micrographic scans are included in the default device settings. The function controls can be used to configure custom scan modes with, as for its predecessor, menu choices visible on the main display screen.
The medical tricorder incorporates the usual communications functions of the standard tricorder. These are carried out by the medical tricorder through the subspace transceiver array (STA). Voice and data are uplinked/downlinked along standard communicator frequencies. Transmission data rates are variable, but the old mark VII's maximum emergency dump mode rated 825 TFP, and involved all memory devices being read in sequence and transmitted (including any library chips in place), making the total time to dump the tricorder's memory to a starship as long as 0.875 seconds. Communication range is limited to that of the normal Starfleet combadge, namely 40,000 kilometres.
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 Left and above: In sickbay the Doctor uses a medical tricorder to scan Torres' unborn baby. [Lineage] and [Prophecy] |
 front view Source: CC |
When the tricorder is stowed i.e. not in use with the flap closed, all that is visible is the power switch. It shows a red (or orange-red) power-on light and a green power level indicator. |  rear view Source: CC |
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The tricorder and separate deployable sensor can be carried when not in use inside a specially-designed case which can attach to clothing and be worn on the hip, ready to hand. When the tricorder is in use, it is used with the flap fully open (i.e. the flap drops down), and all the controls are thus visible ready for use.
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| The righthand view shows the medical tricorder partly from the rear and shows the power light indicator which activates as soon as the front flap starts being opened. Sources: CC | |||
Behind-the-scenes: For reasons of economy on production costs, the same prop is used for the medical tricorder as for the standard tricorder. The separate deployable sensor is an additional prop.
* Tomography is any of various techniques which provide images of successive plane sections of the human(oid) body or other solid objects using X-rays or ultrasound and, by the 24th century, processed by computer to give a three-dimensional image.
In 2375 a cytoplasmic lifeform latches onto Torres' body, co-opting her vital organs [#102 Nothing Human]. The Voyager crew re-create the brilliant exobiologist, the Cardassian Dr Crell Moset, who specialises in non-humanoid exobiology. In sickbay:
Moset: "You have an isomolecular scanner?"It is not known when the joint medical conference occurred. It is also not known whether knowledge of how to recalibrate the medical tricorder was retained after Torres was successfully treated, but I suggest not, because the Doctor decided to erase the Moset hologram and his research from the ship's database on moral grounds as he had obtained his research through torture experiments, and it is unlikely that he would permit the knowledge of Moset's tricorder adjustment to remain too.
Doctor: "No, just a standard issue Starfleet tricorder." He hands it to Moset.
Moset: "No wonder you're having problems making an accurate diagnosis. I suggested an upgrade to the Starfleet people at a joint medical conference but they just assumed I was an arrogant Cardassian trying to prove his superiority, or maybe they thought I was a spy."
Doctor: "I hope you weren't too offended."
Moset: "It's an unfortunate reality. Sometimes even enlightened races can't find common ground. I may be able to recalibrate this thing." He adjusts some controls. "There, that should help."
The Doctor looks at the read-out from the adjusted tricorder. "Amazing!"
Moset: "Well, someone from Starfleet appreciates me."
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