Tricorders are devices used, among other things, to determine what ails a patient. Yeah, it is a pretty wild notion that one single device can do such a thing. There have even been applications previously on the market resembling a tricorder on your very own smart phone! Though once an organization by the name of CBS, found out it was not associated to Star Trek itself, it was discontinued on the Android market. There are still a couple of applications mimicking it for the iPhone and other such devices today, but they prove to not be as functional.