Scanadu, based in the Singularity University, has raised over $1.3m in crowdfunding to develop a real life version of Star Trek’s tricorder device.
Originally stating a goal of $100k, the firm flew past its target within 2 hours, and continues to rise with 12 days left of the fundraising campaign.
The investment comes on the back of a $2m venture round raised in 2011 from a network of global angel investors, which the firm used to relocate from Belgium to Silicon Valley-based Singularity University.
Scanadu’s primary product, Scout, is based on the tricorder, a medical scanner from the science-fiction programme Star Trek, which characters can use to instantly diagnose health conditions. Scanadu’s Scout may not be quite as advanced as the Star Trek equivalent, but can be used to measure heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate, blood pressure, emotional stress, and other health metrics.
The device has already passed the prototype phase and the fundraising campaign is being used to gain US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) market approval by shipping out trial devices of the Scout tool to investors, which will be used to collect data that will assist development.
Should the company gain FDA approval, it will become a contender for the $10m Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize, a competition set up to encourage inventors to create the science fiction medical device in real life. Previous X-Prizes led to the development of SpaceShipOne, the first non-government reusable space craft able to go into space twice in two weeks. Financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the technology behind SpaceShipOne has since gone on to be used by the Virgin Group to create Virgin Galactic, which plans to offer civilian space flights within the next few years.
Should Scanadu’s Scout reach the market, the company has said that the device will be available for $149.
