ST:TNG Tricorder design was inspired by HP-41C

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(08-09-2019 01:04 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  Closeups of the real McCoy ...

Just nitpicking here, but McCoy ("bones") was not on TNG (The Next Generation). He was on TOS ("The Original Series") instead. (How I have always hated TLAs! (*) ;-) ).

On Next Generation, the doctors were female and called Dr. Crusher and (briefly) Dr. Pulaski. Take this from someone who is married to a Trekkie who rarely misses a Star Trek Convention which she attends dressed as Dr. Crusher including that tricorder thingie. Which flashes some lights and emits beeping sounds but otherwise is completely dissimilar to an HP-41. The designer may or may not have been inspired by the calculator, but the final product bears absolutely no resemblance to it. It is actually a lot more similar to the flip-lid communicator of "TOS" than to an HP-41.

Live Long and Prosper
Max


(*) TLA=Three Letter Abbreviation