Smartphones are cool but they are fairly limited as far as the types of data that they can really take in. If you were putting together a kit of tools with existing technology to gather data for science and engineering which tools do you think would be most important? Here are my ideas.

  • Multimeter

  • IR camera

  • UV camera

  • Motion amplification camera

  • Microscope

  • The flipper zero or some similar hacking tool

  • @SulaymanF
    5•9 months ago

    Camera with AI that can recognize items (like Google glass or Siri identifying plant species or translating text).

    Health tools like heart rate monitor, EKG. Portable ultrasound

    • @Cool_NameOP
      3•9 months ago

      Oh yes, AI image recognition absolutely gives me that tricorder vibe. I have a friend at my community garden with some apps like that and it is so much like an away mission when she quickly makes an ID and tells us what to do with that information.

      scan “This is honey suckle it needs to be removed.”

      scan “This is an indigenous cone flower, it will attract pollinators”

  • nickwitha_k (he/him)
    4•9 months ago

    Hrm… If going for things that could magically be in it, I think the following:

    • Multi-meter
    • Oscilloscope / Logic Analyzer / Signal Generator
    • Basic microscope
    • UV/Vis/IR spectrophotometer/spectrometer (possibly part of an imaging system)
    • Geiger counter / dosimeter
    • Gas Chromatograph (maybe use some kind of forcefield instead of physical column)/ Mass Spectrometer
    • EMR transceiver
    • Onboard reprogrammable logic circuitry (allows for arbitrary signal routing and data transformations)