Portable medical scanners built to interface with cellphones
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/fm9sOhPlDn8mDBv1XgtjNw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM1Ng--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/wPiabhSNml4ufR4PycBzRw--~B/aD0yMjc7dz00NTA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/5-1-08-portable-scanner.jpg)
You know those elephant-sized medical scanners? Totally amazing machines, sure, but things like that aren't apt to be shipped into obscure jungles throughout Africa. Thankfully, a team of researchers have developed something that could bring medical scanning to an even larger chunk of the world: a real live Tricorder. Of course, it's not really going by that moniker, but the diminutive scanner is able to interface with a cellphone via USB and utilize its 3G / WiFi access to send raw scan data to servers and receive images back. Granted, you won't get any high-resolution viewing from your average mobile, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.