The future vision of "Star Trek" has led to many insights regarding development of new, more current, technology. Among current pursuits, Air Force scientists are engaged in various efforts to mimic the effects generated by the "phaser", while NASA engineers explore ion and other forms of near-warp drive like propulsion. Recently, by developing a low-cost applique for the military-fielded DAGR PPS GPS receiver, Rockwell Collins has created the architectural foundation for a potential "tricorder" or handheld positioning and sensor device. The Situation Data Advisor incorporates a cabled or integrated tactical radio for secure voice and data exchange with other participants (and other "upper tier" C4I systems) and acts as a "last mile" interconnect from these potential resources of data to the individual. By leveraging the proposed architecture development, additional sensors can be integrated to (or in) the Situation Data Advisor packaging approach, further extending the functional capability of the autonomous user to provide environmental or even medical assessment capabilities and bringing the vision of a future tricorder more towards the present. This paper presents a "historical" overview of tricorder development and challenges in making the science fiction into realistic fact. A cursory review of present-day sensor capability and a notional systems design of a general tricorder is shown. The Situation Data Advisor architecture (combining secure PPS GPS and tactical radios) is presented as well and highlights the various current and potential future capabilities resulting from such a combination. Focus on functions including self position derivation in challenging environments, communications with other participants, and existing sensing capability is presented. Lastly, a summary of various real-world sensor systems for military medical and other in-field applications using the Situation Data Advisor is discussed, with an overview of remaining challenges to fully enable such a realistic "tricorder" as promised by such vision as those of Star Trek.
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