Trekkie communicator ready to go

BBC ^

[Grig]

If you have ever wanted to emulate Star Trek and talk to colleagues via a lapel communicator, then now is your chance. US firm Vocera has created a wireless voice communicator just like they use in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Similar to the TV series, all you do to contact someone is press the talk button on the lapel badge, say their name, and you will be put through.

The gadget is proving popular in hospitals to make it easier for nurses to find and get advice from doctors.

Talk time

The Vocera communications system channels voice calls via a wi-fi network to recognise who someone is trying to reach and then to connect them.

Servers do the job of decoding speech to recognise names, find out if the person is available and then a portion of the wireless network is reserved so the people can speak to each other.

The gadget is popular in hospitals "It's pretty futuristic," said Keerti Melkote, co-founder of Aruba Networks that is a partner of Vocera.

"It's very neat, smaller than a cell phone and very lightweight," he told BBC News Online.

Although the voice recognition system needs a bit of training to match names with the way people pronounce them, the system can be working well within a few days, said Mr Melkote.

Early customers for the Vocera communicator were hospitals who like the fact that it lets nurses talk directly to doctors.

"We're focussing on healthcare to help provide bedside patient care and replace pager type calls," he said.

He said pagers can just lead to people leaving endless numbers of messages for each other but never actually speaking.

Mr Melkote said the communicator was ideal for workplaces where staff move around a lot, are spread around large campuses or across several buildings.

The battery-powered gadget can either be clipped to a lapel or worn on a lanyard around the neck.

[Grig]

No word on any progress on Trekker communicator. :)

The gadget clips to a lapel

[cyborg]

OMG...no. NO! No more gadgets... I have a Compaq pocket pc that has a tricorder on it... I am 30 and tis time to stop looking at things that appeal to my grade school nerd self.

[aomagrat]

"Commander Data is not aboard the Enterprise."

[LibKill]

Aw poo! I'll bet my boss gets one of these damnable things for me.

[DoughtyOne]

Sounds like it has potential. What concerns me is how physicians would function with thirty or more nurses calling them on a whim.

[hummingbird]

Count me in the nerd club....I would love to whip one of these things out! Its beyond me why we still use Metro Busses....shouldn't we have holodecks and the thingies that can "beam me up/beam me down" by now?! LOL

[Rome2000]

Screw that, I want a Phaser that I can set on stun.

[Glenn]

I am 30 and tis time to stop looking at things that appeal to my grade school nerd self.

Resistance is futile.

I'm a couple decades older than you and cannot pass up a gadget. It may be genetic, I don't know.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Won't be impressed until Congress increases funding for transporter beam research. THAT should cut down on the parking problems downtown!

[mikrofon]

The gadget is popular in hospitals "It's pretty futuristic," said Keerti Melkote, co-founder of Aruba Networks that is a partner of Vocera

Alien assistance from the future??

[cyborg]

hehehe... I was pretty disappointed that the year 2000 came and I was still taking the boring bus :)

[cyborg]

Weird... it may be genetic. I tell my mother that it's all her fault for not buying me stuff when I was little *LOL*

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Screw that, I want a Phaser that I can set on stun.

Kerry is already stunned. Come November he will be disintergrated, perhaps sooner.

[Iberian]

Kerry will be fit with the dual jiarrating canutty rod. The device speaks his words and automatically reverses anything he says.

[FreedomFarmer]

Mok! choi Chu! /Klingonise>

Mok! Activate transporter!

[I_dmc]

I worked at a Christmas tree farm when young. A schoolmate and I got into a conversation one day while baling up trees (those nylon nets) concerning how one could make a transporter. The boss's wife walks up, listens for a time, then says, "I have two masters degrees and you two are way over my head." Sometimes I think if we'd kept going, we would be using transporters by now.

[mean lunch lady]

Wow! That's amazing - they found doctors in a hospital???
LOL

[JenB]

Ooh, ooh, I want one. A real communicator would solve the problem of talking on your cell phone in the car.

I want one in the NextGen shape. I don't like the DS9 or Voyager communicator pins at all.

[hummingbird]

Heh, heh...I think it could be genetic. My 4 year old nephew has gadgets hanging off his belts and clothes just like my uncle did when he was a kid. You never know when you might need a compass when you are 4 years old!

[hummingbird]

Me, too! And, where are those personal hovercrafts we were supposed to be jetting on?! I read that the "beam machine" can take stuff apart very efficiently; it just can't put it all back in the same place! Imagine that warranty...