Time for a Tricorder

I believe it's time to start turning our mobile phones into the Tricorders they will eventually become. Here follows a rundown of the features I'd like to see on future handheld communications devices.

Modern mobile phones are pretty amazing devices. For an outlay of a thousand dollars or so you can get a large, efficient touch screen, a powerful CPU (and we are just starting to see the advent of mobile dual-core - clearly the industry is casting around for something to add in to make us all upgrade), accelerometers, GPS radio, GSM and HSDPA radio, bluetooth radio, FM receiver, magnetic digital compass, digital cameras and LED lights. This is undeniably an impressive list, and nearly all of it is thanks to the magic of semiconductors. However I believe that there are a number of items that could be added to this list in the near future, with a little innovation, that would turn the location, communication and calculation swiss army knife that is the modern phone into a true multi-talented mobile masterpiece.

1. Near IR night camera (with IR floodlight). Really, why haven't they done this already? It allows night time videography, so your friends' drunken antics will be even more clearly visible. Also good for spotting wildlife.

2. UV detector. Good for a day at the beach. Combined with the SPF rating of your sunscreen this could tell you how long you can stay in the sun before you start to burn.

3. Barometer. I have one of these in my watch so there's no reason you couldn't put it in a phone. You could use it to find your altitude indoors perhaps, or measure changes in altitude for a small amount of power (GPS uses a lot).

4. Electrical multi-meter. OK I know there are prefectly good multi-meters out there today but think of all the everyday items that have been absorbed by the mobile monster mash - clocks (have you noticed not many people wear watches these days?), calculators, Walkmans, handheld GPS and so on. Why not make the electrical fiddler proud of his new phone? You could even use the headphone socket for the probes.

5. Laser range-finder. Again this may not have mass-market appeal but maybe that's because no one has ever had access to such a thing before. People didn't know they needed accelerometers until those spirit level apps became available, after all, and now they use them all the time.

6. Laser temperature probe. Great for avoidance of a hot engine. Maybe you want to know if that saucepan has cooled down now.

7. Thermocouple. Again this could easily plug into the headphone or USB port, and allows you to find out how hot your coffee is, whether it's time to take out that cake, if your iced drink has cooled to 5 degrees yet, whatever.

8. Thermometer. This is a slightly dubious one since after your phone has been in your pocket all day it's only going to tell you how warm and snug a mouse would be were you to keep one in there. There are situations where it could be useful, though I suspect it would most commonly be used to complain to the building manager that the AC needs to be turned down.

9. Thermal camera. For me this is the holy grail. If a phone came out with a thermal camera I would sell my car for the privilege of owning one. This could help you find leaks in your house's insulation, look for computer components to cool, check out how well your cold weather clothing is working, the possibilities are endless. I'd use it for finding wildlife at night. Obviously with one of these the laser probe would be obsolete.

10. Light sensor. Yes, I know they already use those, but how about calibrating them and using them to tell us the luminous flux of light bulbs, the sun, whatever? That could be useful for photographers.

11. Geiger-counter. This is a bit of a niche application but I remember several occasions in physics lab at uni when I wanted for one of these. Also considering the amount of worry over radiation released by the nuclear industry these could help put people at their ease about fallout.

12. Solar cell. Unlike the others this isn't a sensor, but you could easily make part of the back of the phone into a solar cell that would help with battery life, possibly quite a lot. You could even arrange matters such that it charges the phone even if it is switched off, thereby giving you a full charge with no cables necessery.

Obviously no one is going to fit all of these to the one phone, but if manufacturers are really that desperate to sell, there are a few in that list that could be implemented today and would really set theirs apart from the others, perhaps even garnering them a reputation of catering for professionals. The resulting arms-race could be spectacular. And nearly all of these are present as semiconductor technologies today.

Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking no one in their right mind would buy such a thing unless they needed all those features. Ever heard of a Swiss Army Knife? Yeah.