2.26 Tricorders
Describes the handheld tricorder as a combination sensor, computer, and recorder used to analyze and detect virtually anything, including special-purpose units, and how it is used.
In brief: A handheld scientific instrument, the Swiss army pocketknife of 24th Century science. A combination sensor, computer and recorder, the tricorder is used to analyze and detect virtually anything needed on our Away missions and on board ship. Special purpose tricorders are also available, like the medical tricorder used by Doc Zimmerman. Standard tricorders are incapable of sensing neutrinos or subspace phenomena, although special purpose tricorders or peripherals could provide this ability if needed.
How to use it: Simply point the tricorder at whatever it is you want to study. Information will (theoretically) appear on the tricorder’s tiny built-in screen. The person using the tricorder would then report something like: “Tricorder readings indicate no other life forms within a fifty meter radius.” The tricorder can be easily adjusted to detect many different things at the touch of a few buttons.